KEY POINTS
- ‘We will not be dragged into Putin’s war of choice, but we will stand with Ukraine,’ says Austin
- The U.S. has committed over $32 billion in aid to Ukraine over the past year
- Ukraine has made gains and captured some territory in the embattled city of Bakhmut
The United States on Thursday confirmed it will not be joining the full-scale war in Ukraine but said it will continue sending military aid to Kyiv.
The remark was made by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin during the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense Hearing.
“We will not be dragged into Putin’s war of choice, but we will stand with Ukraine as it fights to defend itself, and we will continue to strengthen NATO’s collective defense and deterrence,” he said. “We will continue to support Ukraine’s fight for freedom for as long as it takes. To keep pace with Ukraine’s urgent security needs even as we maintain our own readiness, we are pushing to expand production from the defense industrial base.”
Austin also noted that the U.S. has committed over $32 billion in military aid and security assistance to Ukraine over the past year. In total, Washington has committed $36.9 billion of military aid to Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion in February 2022, including a new $1.2 billion package announced earlier this week.
“Over the past year, the United States has committed more than $32 billion in game-changing security assistance to support Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression. This has helped meet Ukraine’s most urgent needs—including air defense, artillery systems, tanks and other armored vehicles, and other crucial capabilities—and it has translated to tangible gains on the Battlefield,” Austin added.
His remarks come after Ukraine on Wednesday made gains and captured some territory in the embattled city of Bakhmut, according to Wagner group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin. He said areas previously captured by his fighters are now being liberated by Ukraine as Wagner suffers heavy casualties in the war, as translated by CNN.
However, the Russian Defense Ministry pushed back on Prigozhin’s claims, adding that the Wagner chief’s statements are “not true” and that the Russian army is “getting results from the effective actions of our units” in Bakhmut, as translated via Google Translate.
Bakhmut has been the site of intense fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces for the past 11 months.
