U.S. Approves Another $350 Million in Ukraine Aid

Ukrainians are racking their arsenals as they prepare to face down the full might of the Russian military in the hopes of keeping their capital city of Kyiv out of President Vladimir Putin’s hands.

Outnumbered but armed with homemade Molotov cocktails and other makeshift weapons, Ukrainians fought to retain control of their country’s capital while loud explosions rang out to the north, south, and west. Russian missiles sliced through Kyiv, demolishing buildings, hitting houses, and flattening structures as Putin’s foot soldiers forced their way into the city.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who remained in Kyiv when Russian forces rolled in, told his country that the city required “special attention.”

“We cannot lose the capital,” he said.

US TO PROVIDE $350 MILLION MORE TO UKRAINE

(AP Photo/Mikhail Palinchak)

At least four dozen explosions were heard in the early morning hours, followed shortly by loud bursts of gunfire, the Washington Post reported. Fires had been ignited, and smoke billowed from a major road in Kyiv just a handful of miles west of the legislature.

There were reports of intense fighting near the heart of the city, Maidan Square, where in 2014, Ukrainian protests led to the toppling of a pro-Russia government.

Elsewhere, a missile hit Japanese cargo ship Namura Queen late Friday when it was docked off the coast of Ukraine. The vessel was damaged, and a crew member was injured. The ship, which was docked in the port at Odessa to load grain when it was hit, is now heading to Turkey so officials can assess its condition.

Ukrainian leaders have urged their citizens to join the fight. Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar asked civilians to help troops fend off the Russian forces, saying Russian invaders have “already felt the power” of Ukraine’s military forces but noting that “it is important that everyone resists.”

Some Ukrainian officials, including Kyiv’s mayor, enlisted in the military, and Zelensky has resisted calls to flee despite reports that he is a top target of Russian invaders.

“The fight is here. I need ammunition, not a ride,” he said when U.S. officials implored him to leave.

Russia has been able to establish attack lines into three key Ukrainian cities: Kyiv, Kharkiv in the northwest, and Kherson in the south. So far, Ukrainian troops have held all three.

The heaviest fighting has been around Kharkiv, a city in northeast Ukraine, a senior U.S. defense official said Saturday.

While Russian forces are facing resistance to their invasion in the northern part of Ukraine along two axes, they are facing “less resistance in the south,” an official said, noting U.S. security assistance to Ukraine arrived in recent days.

“We have continued to flow assistance to the Ukrainians, even since the airspace has become disputed and contested, and we’re going to continue to look for additional venues to do that,” the official said in a call with reporters.

Late Friday, the United States approved another $350 million in security assistance to the war-torn country. The State Department announced Saturday that it would include “lethal defensive assistance” that would help Ukraine handle armored and airborne threats. Officials did not disclose what specific equipment the U.S. was sending, nor did they say how they would get the equipment into Ukraine. 

As missile strikes continue to hammer the Eastern European country, the international community is hoping sweeping financial sanctions placed on Russia and Putin in particular will blunt some of his actions.

But Russia has taken steps to defend itself from these nonmilitary tactics. Analysts cautioned that placing a stranglehold on Russia’s $1.5-trillion economy won’t be easy because Moscow began buffering itself from international sanctions after it annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. Since then, Russia has pared down its debt and built up reserves of foreign currency and gold.

The Eastern European power has also moved to restrict local news outlets’ access to their press releases unless they stop spreading what it deemed false information, which included references to the military operation against its neighboring country as an “attack, invasion or declaration of war.” 

The crackdown extended to social media, with Meta saying Friday it was partially censored because of the social media platform’s “independent fact-checking and labeling of content posted on Facebook by four Russian state-owned media organizations,” Nick Clegg, Meta’s vice president of global affairs, said. Russia confirmed it had restricted Facebook but said it was due to the company’s “violation of fundamental human rights and freedoms, as well as the rights and freedoms of Russian citizens.”

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Ukraine’s health minister said that 198 civilians had been killed in the Russian invasion, including three children. Another 1,115 civilians have been wounded, including 33 children.