OAN Shannon Kelland
UPDATED 7:05 PM PT – Wednesday, December 21, 2022
The United States has agreed to send a Patriot Air Defense missile system to Ukraine.
According to the Pentagon on Wednesday, the major $1.85 billion weapons package for Ukraine will include a Patriot missile, battery and munitions. A Patriot System can strike from roughly as far as 20 to 100 miles.
The vehicle-mounted system Ukraine will also receive is designed to hit mid- and high-altitude targets. This includes targets such as missiles, fighter jets, bombers and drones in order to protect military and civilians.
Additional ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) will also be in the weapons package. This includes 500 precision-guided 155mm artillery rounds, mortar systems and rounds, 37 Cougar Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, 120 High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles, six armored utility trucks; High-speed Anti-radiation missiles (HARMs), precision aerial munitions, 2,700 grenade launchers and small arms and other equipment and arms.
It was decided that Ukraine will be receiving this system after Russia warned against it to the United States on Thursday. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, made it clear that deliveries of missile systems to Ukraine from Washington D.C. could escalate the current conflict.
“We would like to remind you that all the weapons supplied by the West to Ukraine are legitimate military targets for the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and will either be destroyed or captured, as our country has repeatedly said,” she said.
The Biden administration has initiated a task force to investigate how American-made microelectronics have ended up in Iranian-made drones that Russia launched into Ukraine.
This announcement comes in conjunction with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s first trip outside of his country since the war began. He visited President Biden and spoke at the Joint Congressional meeting in Washington D.C.
In addition to the weapons package, Ukraine will receive $1 billion in presidential direct distribution and $850 million in assistance will come via the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative.
Spokesman of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Oleksandr Shtupun, gave an update on Wednesday about the Russian invasion.
“During the day, the enemy launched 3 missile strikes and an airstrike on civilian objects in the Zaporizhzhia region. In the city of Gulyaipole, Russian aviation cynically struck the city hospital. In addition, the enemy launched more than 20 attacks from rocket salvo systems,” Shtupun said.
The actions of the Russian military abducting children have been one of the nastier actions during this war.
Sky News has unveiled video footage showing Russian secret police (the FSB), bringing soldiers through an orphanage with rifles. It has also been reported that about 97 orphans have been abducted from the Kherson region of Ukraine.
Zelensky’s visit to America ended with him gifting the U.S. Congress the flag from Bakhmut and in return, he received an American flag.