The Biden Administration is reportedly set to announce a $1.2 billion aid package to Ukraine as early as this week, according to senior U.S. officials, to boost the country's air defense capabilities. The move comes as Moscow intensifies its targeting of Kyiv while the Wagner group appears to have ditched plans to withdraw from Bakhmut, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports. "The United States will continue to take steps to support our Ukrainian partners... and we'll continue to take steps to hold the Russian Federation accountable," State Department's deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel told a daily briefing when responding to TURAN's questions. When asked about Russia's launching a wave of strikes on Kyiv early Monday, Patel said "this is just another line item in the litany of list of Russian aggression on Ukraine." He went on to add, "... The important thing to remember here is that this conflict has not gone to plan according to Putin. The Russian Federation has had to scrape around for additional personnel for this conflict. Now they are relying on the Wagner Group and its band of ex-convicts to do much of this work." Rather for Putin to withdraw from Ukraine and stop the needless loss of life, Russia "has chosen time and time again to escalate. And this - unfortunately we are seeing that wreak havoc across Ukraine, including on Kyiv," Patel added.
Source: Turan News Agency