US announces $250 million in fresh military aid to Ukraine

The United States has announced $250 million in fresh military aid to Ukraine after it was revealed that Washington has decided not to give diplomacy a chance to resolve the conflict between Russia and the ex-Soviet Republic.

The US announced the aid package on Tuesday, naming the components as equipment for clearing mines and obstacles as well as missiles, artillery rounds, anti-armor missiles, and more than three million rounds of small arms ammunition.

Kiev has already received more than $43 billion from the US in the form of weapons systems like howitzers and millions of rounds of ammunition, including widely-banned cluster munitions, since last February when Russia started a "special military operation" in Ukraine.

Russia has said the steady flow of arms towards Ukraine would only prolong the conflict, which Moscow says was started in order to defend the pro-Russian population in the eastern Ukrainian regions of Luhansk and Donetsk against persecution by Kiev, and also to "de-Nazify" its neighbor.

Moscow has, meanwhile, refused to rule out negotiations towards settling the conflict.

On Monday, however, The Washington Post reported that most senior US officials had decided to continue to extend Washington’s support to the Kiev government to carry on with the proxy war against Russia.

According to the paper, they had chosen not to consider diplomacy and were expected to back Ukraine against Russia into next year and beyond by sending Kiev more weapons and munitions.

ME