The jagiellonia.org website cited the US Department of Defense as describing Poland's eastern neighbour Ukraine as “a critical partner” amid “strategic competition with Russia.”
In a statement dated June 11, the Defense Department announced its plans for USD 250 million in “Fiscal Year 2020 Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) funds” intended for “additional training, equipment, and advisory efforts to strengthen Ukraine’s capacity to more effectively defend itself against Russian aggression.”
The Pentagon said the package "reaffirms the long-standing defense relationship between the United States and Ukraine—a critical partner on the front line of strategic competition with Russia.”
The Pentagon added that “the United States remains steadfast in its support for Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders."
According to the statement, the “funds—$125 million of which was conditional on Ukraine’s progress on defense reforms—will provide equipment to support ongoing training programs and operational needs.”
This includes “capabilities to enhance Ukraine’s defensive lethal capabilities and situational awareness in the maritime domain, air surveillance systems to monitor sovereign airspace, command and control and survivability of Ukraine’s Land and Special Operations Forces through the provision of counter-artillery radars and tactical equipment, military medical treatment and combat evacuation procedures, and cyber defense and strategic communications to counter Russian cyber offensive operations and misinformation,” the Pentagon also said in its statement.
The US State Department in April 2018 confirmed a delivery of American-made anti-tank missile systems to Ukraine amid a protracted conflict that has seen Russia-backed separatists battling Ukrainian troops.
Russia in March 2014 seized the Crimea region of southern Ukraine after a referendum that the Ukrainian authorities and the West said was illegal. Earlier, Russian soldiers in unmarked uniforms seized strategic facilities on the peninsula from the Ukrainian army and local authorities.
Ever since Moscow annexed Crimea, Russia has been accused by the authorities in Kyiv and Western governments of arming and coordinating Ukrainian separatists as well as providing Russian fighters amid attempts to seize control of swathes of eastern Ukrainian territory across the Russian border.
In 2018, Russian forces fired on and captured three Ukrainian navy ships in the Kerch Strait, a body of water near the annexed Crimea peninsula, leading to widespread calls in Europe and the United States for tougher sanctions against Moscow.
(gs/pk)
Source: jagiellonia.org, defense.gov