U.S. Condemns Russian Strikes, Sends Another 400 Million To Ukraine

The Biden administration on Wednesday strongly condemned Russian strikes on power generating infrastructure across Ukraine, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.

National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a statement that Russia “is increasingly turning to horrific attacks against the Ukrainian people with punishing strikes damaging energy grid infrastructure, and deliberately doing so as winter approaches.”

The Russian strikes, as Watson put it, “do not appear aimed at any military purpose,” but “instead further the goal of the Putin regime to increase the suffering and death” of Ukrainians.

The U.S. also warned that the actions show “Russia is willing to increase the risk of a nuclear safety incident that could not only further harm Ukraine, but affect the entire region as well.”

Watson’s statement touted an additional $400 million security assistance package for Ukraine announced earlier Wednesday.

This round of aid includes 200 generators, an undisclosed amount of additional rounds for both the advanced NASAMS air defense systems and the HIMARS artillery systems the U.S. has shipped to Ukraine, 150 heavy machine guns with thermal sights to shoot down drones, 10,000 120mm mortar rounds and another 20 million rounds of small arms ammunition, among other items, according to the Pentagon.

“With Russia’s unrelenting and brutal missile and UAS [drone] attacks on Ukrainian critical energy infrastructure, additional air defense capabilities remain an urgent priority,” the Pentagon said in a release.

The lethal aid package also comes less than a month after the administration on Nov. 4 announced a similar $400 million military assistance tranche.

In total, the U.S. has committed more than $19.7 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the beginning of the Biden Administration

Alex Raufoglu

Washington D.C.