The White House announced Thursday it will prioritize sending powerful air defense missiles to Ukraine after a series of Russian missile and drone attacks damaged energy facilities across Ukraine.
Hundreds of newly manufactured Patriot and NASAMS missiles — used for surface-to-air defense — will be sent to Ukraine ahead of other countries that have ordered them, said John Kirby, the White House spokesman for Homeland Security.
He stressed that planned shipments to Taiwan and Israel would not be affected by the move and that other countries expecting shipments were “broadly supportive” when informed of Washington’s decision.
“Obviously more is needed and it’s needed now,” Mr. Kirby told reporters on a conference call. “So, as a result, the United States government has made the difficult but necessary decision to prioritize deliveries to Ukraine of Patriot and NASAMS missiles.”
A massive overnight Russian missile and drone attack damaged energy facilities across Ukraine, a day after the country announced a war-related blackout.
National energy distributor Ukrenergo said Thursday that a Russian overnight attack on a power plant caused serious damage and injured three employees.
“Equipment of facilities in Vinnytsia, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kiev regions were damaged”, says the statement of the Ukrenergo company.
Russian drone and missile strikes have halved Ukraine’s electricity generation capabilities compared to last year, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said earlier this month.
In his daily speech, Mr Zelenskyy said officials were looking for ways to improve the situation.
“We are preparing solutions that will ensure a more stable passage of the hot summer season and offer people more opportunities to get through this extremely difficult period in terms of power shortages and blackouts,” he said.
The Ukrainian air force said it shot down five of nine missiles and all 27 drones launched by Russia over 10 regions of Ukraine during Thursday’s attack. The Ukrainian military said that Russia had mainly targeted eastern Ukraine and in particular the Dnipropetrovsk region. /VOA
I don’t think the title of your article matches the content lol. Just kidding, mainly because I had some doubts after reading the article.