July 13 :
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin spoke by phone with his newly appointed Russian colleague Andrey Belousov in Washington.
During a briefing on Thursday, Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said that Secretary Austin had stressed the significance of keeping channels of communication open in light of Russia's continuing aggression against Ukraine.
Following the NATO 75th anniversary conference in Washington DC from July 9-11, during which member states pledged to maintain assistance for Ukraine, the two leaders had a chat. According to Singh, the deal includes a pledge to provide at least $43 billion in initial money within the next year and the establishment of a command center in Germany to oversee NATO's security support and training programs for Ukraine. The call, according to her, was started by the Russian side and was the second time Austin and Belousov had spoken. The prior discussion took place on June 25th, and the two countries' defense secretaries had previously met in March of 2023.
On May 12, Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov succeeded Sergey Shoigu in the position, as appointed by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Russia and Ukraine have had tense relations ever since the conflict between the two nations broke out.
The US Department of Defense has unveiled the "61st presidential drawdown authority package, which has an estimated value of USD 225 million," according to Singh. "This package will provide Ukraine additional capabilities to meet its most urgent needs and includes one Patriot battery, munitions for rocket systems, and artillery and antitank weapons," according to her.
At a meeting between Presidents Biden and Zelenskyy, the United States and Ukraine unveiled a new military aid package for the country.
The United States has pledged to provide Ukraine with a second Patriot system. According to The Hill, the equipment will be swiftly transferred from the US military's inventory to Ukraine.
Through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative and presidential drawdown authority, the United States has provided over USD 53.7 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since Russia's invasion in early 2022. Members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) have also committed air defense systems and other unilateral measures to aid Ukraine.
In the meanwhile, a story in The Hill states that the United States has restricted the ways in which Ukraine can utilize weaponry supplied by the US to launch attacks within Russia. Even though the United States has given Ukraine permission to launch strikes close to the Russian border, President Biden has denied its requests to attack Russian targets 300 miles away.
"Would it make sense if he could strike Moscow, strike the Kremlin? The Hill cites Biden as saying that he didn't think it would work for Zelensky. How effectively can he employ the weapons at his disposal? I improved his defensive capabilities and gave him additional long-range capability. I'm listening to the counsel of my intelligence community, the secretary of defense, the chief of staff of the military, and the commander in chief; we discuss the appropriate level of involvement on a daily basis. What Biden said was that it was the right thing to do.
"If we want to win, if we want to prevail, if we want to save our country and to defend it, we need to lift all the [limitations]," Zelensky stated at a press conference in Washington on Thursday, according to the US outlet. Plans to deploy longer-range rockets may exacerbate things further, according to Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who warned on Thursday that NATO-provided missiles are already being utilized for strikes on Russia.
Every word and piece of data that emerged from the NATO meeting was carefully monitored by us. The Russian presidential spokesman commented on Kiev's demands that the North Atlantic Alliance remove prohibitions on strikes inside Russia, saying, "And of course, this issue is very sensitive," as reported by TASS.
