US to send 0m in military aid to Ukraine as Republicans continue to block bn funding package

US to send $300m in military aid to Ukraine as Republicans continue to block $60bn funding package

Published

1 year ago

March 13, 2024

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The US will send around $300m in military aid to Ukraine as Republicans continue to block a $60bn funding package for Kyiv.

The aid package being provided will include anti-aircraft missiles, artillery rounds and armour systems, a senior US defence official has said.

It marks the US Department of Defense’s first announced security package for Ukraine since December.

It came as Poland’s President Andrzej Duda and Prime Minister Donald Tusk used a joint visit to the White House on Tuesday to press Washington DC to break its impasse and release the $60bn (£47bn) of US support for Ukraine which is being blocked by Republicans.

The package would help to replenish funds for Ukraine during a critical moment in the war.

Ukraine war updates: Armed groups ‘invade’ Russia

Ukraine’s situation has become dire, with units on the frontline rationing munitions as they face a vastly better supplied Russian force.

CIA director William Burns told Congress that entire Ukrainian units have told him in recent days of being down to their last few dozen artillery shells.

The months without further shipments of US support have hurt operations, and Ukrainian troops withdrew from the eastern city of Avdiivka last month, where outnumbered defenders had withheld a Russian assault for four months.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly implored US Congress for help, but House Republican leadership has not been willing to bring the $60bn Ukraine aid package to the floor for a vote, saying any aid must first address border security needs.

Senior defence officials have told reporters the US defence department has been able to get cost savings of roughly $300m (£235m) in earlier Ukraine contracts and, given the battlefield situation, decided to use those savings to go ahead and send more weapons.

The United States has committed more than $44.9bn (around £35bn) in security assistance to Ukraine since the beginning of the Biden administration, including more than $44.2bn (around £34.6bn) since the beginning of Russia’s invasion on 24 February 2022.

The $300m funding was announced on Tuesday as Denmark said it would provide a military aid package for Ukraine worth around £263m.

It came as Russian President Vladimir Putin gave an interview to his country’s state media where he said he would be ready to use nuclear weapons if his nation’s sovereignty was threatened.

The Russian president also said on Wednesday that Finland and Sweden’s entry into NATO is “a meaningless step” and that Moscow will deploy troops and systems of destruction to the Finnish border after the country joins the alliance.

Mr Putin was speaking hours after a long-time aide of the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who Western leaders say was murdered by the Kremlin, was attacked with a hammer in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius.

Lithuanian police are investigating the attack on Leonid Volkov as it remains unclear who carried it out.

Meanwhile, Russia’s military said it had killed 234 fighters who crossed into the country from Ukraine.

The fighters had attempted to reach the Russian town of Tetkino, which lies close to the border, according to the governor of Russia’s Kursk region, Roman Starovoit.

Sky News has not independently verified the claims.

Ukraine-based military groups, allegedly made up of Russian partisans, had earlier said they had carried out an incursion across Russia’s western border.

Overnight, officials said Ukraine has launched a drone attack on several Russian regions for the second night in row, with more than 30 drones destroyed in the air over the Voronezh region.

It came as three people were killed and at least 10 children were wounded after a Russian missile attack on the Ukrainian president’s hometown of Kryvyi Rih.

Earlier on Tuesday a Russian military plane crashed in Russia’s Ivanovo region with 15 people on board.

Russia’s defence ministry has not released details of casualties.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s security service (SBU) has claimed an alleged Russian agent serving in Ukraine’s army planned to kill commanders by poisoning their baths.

The SBU said military counterintelligence thwarted the attack against army commanders in the southern Zaporizhzhia region and detained a man who “turned out to be an active serviceman of the Ukrainian army”.

“To commit the crime, he planned to add a poisonous substance to the water of the bath and laundry complex, which was used by the command staff,” the SBU said.

World

Two bridges collapse in Russia – as seven people killed and dozens injured

Published

3 hours ago

June 1, 2025

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Two bridges collapse in Russia - as seven people killed and dozens injured

Seven people have been killed and dozens are injured after two bridges collapsed in Russia overnight.

A train derailed after a bridge collapsed on to it in the Bryansk region, killing the driver and six others.

Some 69 people were injured in the crash, with the train travelling from Moscow to Klimov at the time.

Earlier, local authorities blamed “illegal interference” for the incident.

Later, a bridge collapsed in Russia’s Kursk region while a freight train was passing over it.

Local officials said one of the train’s drivers was injured in the crash.

Russia’s Baza Telegram channel, which often publishes information from sources in the security services and law
enforcement, reported, without providing evidence, that the bridge in Bryansk was blown up, according to initial information.

There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.

Since the start of the war that Russia launched more than three years ago, there have been continued cross-border shelling, drone strikes, and covert raids by Ukrainian forces into the Bryansk, Kursk and Belgorod regions that border Ukraine.

Bryansk regional governor Alexander Bogomaz said: “Everything is being done to provide all necessary assistance to the victims.”

Emergency workers are at the scene of the train derailment, attempting to pull survivors from the wreckage.

Russia’s federal road transportation agency said the destroyed bridge passed above the railway tracks where the train was travelling.

Images from the scene show passenger cars ripped apart and lying amid fallen concrete from the collapsed bridge.

Other footage on social media appeared to be taken from inside vehicles which narrowly avoided driving onto the bridge before it collapsed.

World

At least 21 killed in Gaza as they went to receive aid, Red Cross hospital says

Published

4 hours ago

June 1, 2025

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At least 21 killed in Gaza as they went to receive aid, Red Cross hospital says

At least 21 people have been killed in Gaza as they went to receive aid from an Israeli-backed foundation, according to a nearby hospital run by the Red Cross.

The hospital, which received the bodies, said another 175 people had been wounded in the incident in Rafah on Sunday morning.

The Associated Press also reports seeing dozens of people being treated at the hospital.

Witnesses have said those killed and injured were struck by gunfire which broke out at a roundabout near the distribution site.

The area is controlled by Israeli forces.

Ibrahim Abu Saoud, an eyewitness, said Israeli forces opened fire at people moving toward the aid distribution centre.

“There were many martyrs, including women,” the 40-year-old man said. “We were about 300 meters (yards) away from the military.”

Abu Saoud said he saw many people with gunshot wounds, including a young man who he said had died at the scene. “We weren’t able to help him,” he said.

The Gazans had been trying to receive aid from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation – an American organisation backed by both the US and Israeli governments.

It operates as part of a controversial aid system which Israel and the US claims is aimed at preventing Hamas from siphoning off assistance.

Israel has not provided any evidence of systematic diversion, and the UN denies it has occurred.

Earlier, Hamas-linked media had also reported more than 20 deaths in Rafah, saying they were as a result of an Israeli strike on an aid distribution point. Israel is yet to comment.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s distribution of aid has been marred by chaos, and multiple witnesses have said Israeli troops fired on crowds near the delivery sites.

UN agencies and major aid groups have refused to work with the new system, saying it violates humanitarian principles because it allows Israel to control who receives aid and forces people to relocate to distribution sites, risking yet more mass displacement in the territory.

Before Sunday, at least six people had been killed and more than 50 wounded, according to local health officials.

The foundation says the private security contractors guarding its sites did not fire on the crowds, while the Israeli military has acknowledged firing warning shots.

The foundation did not immediately respond to a request for comment following the hospital’s claims.

In an earlier statement, it said it distributed 16 truckloads of aid early on Sunday “without incident”. It dismissed what it referred to as “false reporting about deaths, mass injuries and chaos”.

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World

Israel confirms Hamas chief Mohammad Sinwar was killed – as group makes counter-offer on ceasefire

Published

9 hours ago

June 1, 2025

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Israel confirms Hamas chief Mohammad Sinwar was killed - as group makes counter-offer on ceasefire

Israel has confirmed its forces have killed Hamas’s Gaza chief, Mohammad Sinwar, as US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff called the group’s counter-offer on a ceasefire “totally unacceptable”.

Mohammad Sinwar became the leader of the militant group in the Gaza Strip after his older brother Yahya Sinwar was killed last October.

In a statement, the Israeli military said it had killed Sinwar on 13 May, and was the target of a strike on a hospital in southern Gaza.

Hamas has neither confirmed nor denied his death, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told parliament on Wednesday that he had been “eliminated”.

Who was ‘The Shadow’ Mohammed Sinwar?

Mohammed Sinwar was the younger brother of Yahyah Sinwar, the former leader of Hamas and mastermind behind the 7 October attacks, who was killed by IDF forces in Rafah last October.

In January of this year, Mohammed was confirmed as the new leader of Hamas in Gaza, following the death of his brother.

Among Palestinians, he never had the reputation of Yahya, but he was widely believed to have played a significant role in the kidnap and holding of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit in 2006 and demanded the release of Yahya Sinwar from Israeli prison as part of a swap deal.

Born in Khan Younis, Mohammed Sinwar rose through the ranks of Hamas to become a senior commander in Al Qassam Brigades, the group’s military wing.

He was known as ‘The Shadow’, in part because of the junior role he played to his older brother and also because few images of him exist.

He survived multiple assassination attempts and was previously incorrectly declared dead during Israel’s war in Gaza.

Sinwar had a reputation for being stubborn, and Israeli sources in the ceasefire negotiations blamed him for slowing the process and changing his demands at the last minute.

The IDF has confirmed he was with the commander of the Rafah brigade, Mohammed Shabanah, in tunnels underneath the European Hospital in Gaza when the IDF struck in mid-May. Shabanah’s death is significant because he was a likely successor to Sinwar.

It would leave Azadi al-Hadad, the Gaza City Brigade Commander, as the only living Hamas commander from 7 October.

He would likely be in line as the next Hamas chief in Gaza.

Hamas seeks changes in US ceasefire proposal

It comes as Hamas said it was seeking amendments to a US-proposed ceasefire deal, offering 10 living Israeli hostages and the bodies of 18 in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.

On Thursday, the White House said Israel agreed to a 60-day ceasefire proposal, which would see the release of nine living hostages and half of the known hostages who have died over the course of a week.

Israel and Hamas would then continue talks to bring the remaining hostages home, but Israel would retain the right to resume military action in Gaza if talks were to break down.

In a statement about the proposal on Saturday, Hamas said its response “aims to achieve a permanent ceasefire, a complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, and to ensure the flow of humanitarian aid to our people in the Strip”.

Hamas offer ‘totally unacceptable’ – Witkoff

Donald Trump’s special Middle East envoy, Mr Witkoff, said on social media that Hamas’s response is “totally unacceptable and only takes us backwards”.

“Hamas should accept the framework proposal we put forward as the basis for proximity talks, which we can begin immediately this coming week,” he added.

Senior Hamas official Basem Naim told Reuters that the group has not rejected the proposal but added Mr Witkoff’s response was “unfair” and showed “complete bias” towards Israel.

Israel has not yet responded to Hamas’ counter-offer, but has previously rejected the conditions and demanded the complete disarmament and dismantling of the group.

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Meanwhile, Gaza aid groups have said dozens of World Food Programme (WFP) trucks carrying flour to Gaza bakeries had been hijacked by armed groups and subsequently looted by people.

The WFP added: “After nearly 80 days of a total blockade, communities are starving and they are no longer willing to watch food pass them by.”

Amjad Al-Shawa, head of an umbrella group representing Palestinian aid groups, said hundreds more trucks were needed and accused Israel of a “systematic policy of starvation”.

Israel denies operating a policy of starvation and says it is facilitating aid deliveries via the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Instead, it accuses Hamas of stealing supplies.