Washington [US]: Pentagon on Monday (local time) said that it has “communicated with China” to stop it from sending weapons to Russia.
“We have communicated with China about the negative consequences of providing lethal support to Russia. Not only it would extend the duration of Russia’s illegal occupation of Ukraine and result in thousands of innocent killed in Ukraine and will surely put them in camps of countries that are looking to eliminate Ukraine as a nation,” said Pentagon press secretary Pat Ryder. However, he said that Pentagon does not have any indications that China has provided lethal assistance to Russia.
Regarding the change in US calculations of supplying longer-range fires to Ukraine, after Britain’s promise of cruise missiles and — and long-range UAVs effect, Ryder said, “No, it doesn’t.
You know, as we’ve said all along, we’re going to continue to stay in active discussions with Ukraine, with our allies and our partners on what their most urgent security assistance needs are. As you know, we have provided a wide variety of capabilities, including things like artillery, air defence, armour, ammunition, and — and we’ll continue to do that going forward.”
He also said that the US is in close contact with Ukraine after it made a renewed push for Western warplanes again.
“I don’t have anything to announce today in regards to any type of fighter aircraft. Again, we’re going to stay in very close contact with Ukraine and our allies and partners to look at their near-term and longer-term security needs,” said Ryder.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy lauded promises of fresh military aid made by European allies he met over the past few days — but he continued to press for modern fighter jets.
Ukraine said Russian forces are no longer capable of large-scale offensive action. The claim comes as the Ukrainian military said it was able to capture more than 10 Russian positions near Bakhmut.
31 US Abrams tanks have arrived in Germany for the training of Ukrainian forces: Thirty-one M1 Abrams tanks have arrived in Germany ahead of a training program for Ukrainian forces on the US tanks, the Pentagon said Monday.
“The Ukrainian crews are expected to begin training at Grafenwohr in Germany in the next couple of weeks. Because we’re doing this concurrently, we will be able to provide those tanks to them in the fall timeframe to get them into Ukraine before the end of the year,” Ryder said.
The training program is expected to take several months, and the tanks are expected to be sent to Ukraine sometime in the fall.
