WASHINGTON -- The U.S. will send another $400 million in military equipment to Ukraine, including four more advanced rocket systems, a senior defense official said Friday, in an effort to bolster Ukrainian efforts to strike deeper behind Russian front lines in the eastern Donbas region.
The defense official said the eight High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems that were previously sent are still being used by Ukraine forces in the fight. This will give them four more to help hit Russian command and control nodes, logistics capabilities and other systems that are farther back behind the battlefront. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details not yet made public.
Ukraine's leaders have publicly called on Western allies to quickly send more ammunition and advanced systems that will help them narrow the gap in equipment and manpower. The precision weapons can help Ukraine hit Russian weapons that are farther away and are being used to bombard Ukrainian locations.
In addition to the rocket systems, the U.S. will also send 1,000 rounds of 155 millimeter artillery ammunition that has an increased precision capability that also will help Ukraine hit specific targets. The package also will include three tactical vehicles, counter battery radar systems, spare parts and other equipment.
Looking ahead to the coming months, the official said a key goal is to build up Ukraine's logistics and repair capabilities so troops can maintain its weapons systems and continue the fight into the future.
Overall, the U.S. has sent about $7.3 billion in aid to Ukraine since the war began in late February.
U.S. and other western officials have said that Russia has been making slow, incremental progress in the Donbas but has not made gains as rapidly as Moscow initially intended. President Joe Biden said the U.S. is giving Ukrainians the aid needed to continue to resist Russian aggression.
"I don't know how it's going to end, but it will not end with a Russian defeat of Ukraine in Ukraine," Biden said last week.
CITY IN DIRE STRAITS
Meanwhile, a Ukrainian regional official warned Friday of deteriorating living conditions in a city captured by Russian forces two weeks ago, saying Sievierodonetsk is without water, power or a working sewage system while the bodies of the dead decompose in hot apartment buildings.
Gov. Serhiy Haidai said the Russians were unleashing indiscriminate artillery barrages as they try to secure their gains in eastern Ukraine's Luhansk province. Moscow this week claimed full control of Luhansk, but the governor and other Ukrainian officials said their troops retained a small part of the province.
Russia's forces "strike every building that they think could be a fortified position," he said. "They aren't stopped by the fact that civilians are left there, and they die in their homes and courtyards. They keep firing."
Occupied Sievierodonetsk, meanwhile, "is on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe," Haidai wrote on social media. "The Russians have completely destroyed all the critical infrastructure, and they are unable to repair anything."
Luhansk is one of two provinces that make up the Donbas, Ukraine's industrial region of mines and factories. Pro-Moscow separatists have fought Ukraine's army in the Donbas for eight years and declared independent republics, which Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized before he sent troops into Ukraine.
After asserting full control of Luhansk, Putin said Russian forces would have a chance to rest and recoup, but other parts of eastern Ukraine have come under sustained Russian bombardment. He warned the Ukrainian government in Kyiv that it should quickly accept Moscow's terms or brace for the worst.
Ukraine's presidential office said early Friday that at least 12 civilians were killed and 30 wounded by Russian shelling over the past 24 hours. Two cities in Donetsk -- the other Donbas province -- experienced the heaviest barrage, with six people killed and 21 wounded.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy traveled to the southern Dnipropetrovsk region, where he met with troops and visited a hospital where wounded soldiers were being treated. He said in his nightly video address that he went to personally express his gratitude to those defending Ukraine and also to the doctors and nurses who save the lives of wounded soldiers and civilians.
In northeast Ukraine, four more people were killed and nine were wounded in Kharkiv, the country's second-largest city, where Russian shelling hit residential areas.
The British Defense Ministry said Ukrainian forces have made advances near the Russian-occupied southern city of Kherson. Meanwhile, the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War said Ukrainian partisans blew up a railroad bridge 15 miles north of Melitopol on Thursday to disrupt Russian resupply operations.
WAR FOE SENTENCED
In other developments, a Moscow court sentenced a member of the Krasnoselsky municipal council to seven years in prison Friday for his remarks opposing the war.
Alexei Gorinov, 60, was found guilty of spreading "knowingly false information" about the Russian military, an offense that carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.
Gorinov criticized Russia's military actions in Ukraine at a meeting in March. A video available on YouTube shows him voicing skepticism about holding a planned children's art competition in his constituency while "every day children are dying" in Ukraine.
Gorinov refused to plead guilty, and he denounced the invasion again while giving his closing statement in court on Thursday.
NASA on Thursday issued a condemnation of the Russian space agency, its main partner on the International Space Station, after its cosmonauts celebrated Russia's capture of a region of eastern Ukraine.
In a statement, the agency said it "strongly rebukes using the International Space Station for political purposes to support its war against Ukraine, which is fundamentally inconsistent with the station's primary function among the 15 international participating countries to advance science and develop technology for peaceful purposes."
Since the invasion, NASA has gone to great lengths to try to preserve the partnership on the space station, which has endured for more than 20 years. The space agency pledged the partnership would continue to endure.
Information for this article was contributed by Lolita C. Baldor, Francesca Ebel, Maria Grazia Murru, Cara Anna and staff members of The Associated Press and by Christian Davenport of The Washington Post.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attends a meeting with military officials Friday during a visit to the war-hit Dnipropetrovsk region to thank the troops and medical workers. U.S. officials announced another $400 million in military aid, including advanced rocket systems and artillery shells, as Russian forces continue to batter cities in eastern Ukraine. More photos at arkansasonline.com/ukrainemonth5/. (AP/Ukrainian Presidential Press Office)Gallery: Images from Ukraine, month 5
