The US on Friday responded to a Russian warning against arming Ukraine by offering a further US$400 million in security assistance, as US President Joe Biden hosted German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in a show of unity against Moscow.
Meanwhile, the head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group said its forces had “practically encircled” the eastern Ukraine city of Bakhmut, which has seen the fiercest fighting of Moscow’s invasion.
Western military aid for Ukraine has been key to Kyiv’s ability to hold out against Moscow’s military onslaught, and to even regain ground, but the Kremlin said that such assistance would only “prolong the conflict and have sad consequences for the Ukrainian people.”
Photo: Reuters
Arms deliveries “place a significant burden on the economies of these countries and negatively affect the well-being of citizens of these countries, including Germany,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Washington ignored that warning, announcing the new security package for Kyiv that features ammunition, including for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, known as HIMARS, that Ukrainian forces have used to devastating effect against Russian troops and supply dumps.
In a display of partnership after friction over supplying tanks to Ukraine, Biden hosted Scholz at the White House for his first trip to Washington since Russia’s invasion.
When they last met, “Russia was amassing its troops” on the border, Biden said in brief remarks to the press, adding that the West had vowed to respond and “together we made good on that promise.”
In reply, Scholz said it was important to send a message to Ukraine that “we will continue to [support it] as long as it takes and as long as it necessary.”
The absence of a joint news conference raised questions about remaining difficulties, but the two leaders tried to dispel that impression, and Scholz said the bilateral relationship was “in a very good shape.”
In another show of support for Ukraine, US Attorney General Merrick Garland made a surprise visit to the country on Friday to attend a conference on justice and war crimes.
“The attorney general held several meetings and reaffirmed our determination to hold Russia accountable for crimes committed in its unjust and unprovoked invasion against its sovereign neighbor,” a US Department of Justice official said.
Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin in a video released on Telegram on Friday said that the group’s units “have practically surrounded Bakhmut, only one road remains” to be captured.
The 61-year-old has regularly posted about the advances of Wagner, his once-shadowy force that has taken center stage in the fight in eastern Ukraine.
He has said in the past few weeks that his fighters have seized three villages north of Bakhmut — Yagidne, Berkhivka and Paraskoviivka.
Ukraine has said it will defend “fortress Bakhmut” for as long as possible, but this week officials said the situation was difficult.
Russia is determined to seize Bakhmut — a now-destroyed city once known for its sparkling wine — as part of its wider aim of capturing the entire Donetsk region.
Ukrainian troops have held out for months, fighting brutal trench warfare and artillery battles that have flattened large portions of the city.
Malaysia yesterday installed a motorcycle-riding billionaire sultan as its new king in lavish ceremonies for a post seen as a ballast in times of political crises. The coronation ceremony for Malaysia’s King Sultan Ibrahim, 65, at the National Palace in Kuala Lumpur followed his oath-taking in January as the country’s 17th monarch. Malaysia is a constitutional monarchy, with a unique arrangement that sees the throne change hands every five years between the rulers of nine Malaysian states headed by centuries-old Islamic royalty. While chiefly ceremonial, the position of king has in the past few years played an increasingly important role. Royal intervention was
X-37B COMPARISON: China’s spaceplane is most likely testing technology, much like US’ vehicle, said Victoria Samson, an official at the Secure World Foundation China’s shadowy, uncrewed reusable spacecraft, which launches atop a rocket booster and lands at a secretive military airfield, is most likely testing technology, but could also be used for manipulating or retrieving satellites, experts said. The spacecraft, on its third mission, was last month observed releasing an object, moving several kilometers away and then maneuvering back to within a few hundred meters of it. “It’s obvious that it has a military application, including, for example, closely inspecting objects of the enemy or disabling them, but it also has non-military applications,” said Marco Langbroek, a lecturer in optical space situational awareness at Delft
The Philippine Air Force must ramp up pilot training if it is to buy 20 or more multirole fighter jets as it modernizes and expands joint operations with its navy, a commander said yesterday. A day earlier US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said that the US “will do what is necessary” to see that the Philippines is able to resupply a ship on the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) that Manila uses to reinforce its claims to the atoll. Sullivan said the US would prefer that the Philippines conducts the resupplies of the small crew on the warship Sierra Madre,
AIRLINES RECOVERING: Two-thirds of the flights canceled on Saturday due to the faulty CrowdStrike update that hit 8.5 million devices worldwide occurred in the US As the world continues to recover from massive business and travel disruptions caused by a faulty software update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, malicious actors are trying to exploit the situation for their own gain. Government cybersecurity agencies across the globe and CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz are warning businesses and individuals around the world about new phishing schemes that involve malicious actors posing as CrowdStrike employees or other tech specialists offering to assist those recovering from the outage. “We know that adversaries and bad actors will try to exploit events like this,” Kurtz said in a statement. “I encourage everyone to remain vigilant