US announces $500 mn in armour, air defence for Ukraine to bolster counteroffensive against Russia

In order to bolster Ukraine's counteroffensive against Russian forces, the United States on Tuesday announced a fresh set of arms for Kyiv which included armoured vehicles, precision munitions and mine-clearing equipment.

The package of $500 million came days after a mutiny by the mercenary group Wagner impacted Russia's war-making capacity.

The Pentagon released a statement saying that the weaponry included 30 Bradley fighting vehicles and 25 Stryker personnel carriers, more rockets for Patriot air defence and Himars precision attack systems; small arms and over 22 millions small arms rounds and grenades.

The package "includes key capabilities to support Ukraine's counteroffensive operations, strengthen its air defences to help Ukraine protect its people... and other equipment to help Ukraine push back on Russia's war of aggression."

The fresh set of arms is aimed at backing the Ukranian military's push to break through the front lines in the south of the country in hopes of driving occupying Russian troops out.

Earlier on Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that despite the short-lived Wagner revolt led by his longtime crony Yevgeny Prigozhin, Moscow did not need to redeploy any troops from fighting in Ukraine.

"We did not have to take combat units from the special military operation zone," Putin said, adding that "all military formations continued to wage a heroic fight at the front."

Putin accuses West of wanting Russians to "kill each other"

The Russian president on Monday accused Ukraine and its Western allies of wanting Russians to "kill each other". During a Monday night address, he also claimed that Prigozhin's uprising was "doomed to fail". He made a special mention to the civilians for showing "unity" in the face of a "treacherous" rebellion.

The Kremlin on Tuesday said that Putin's authority had not been weakened by the armed mutiny. Meanwhile, Putin said that the group of Wagner mercenaries failed to win the support of the Russian people or its army.

In a televised address to law enforcement agencies outside the Kremlin, he said, "People who were drawn into the rebellion saw that the army and the people were not with them."

Putin told troops from the defence ministry, National Guard, FSB security service and interior ministry, "You de facto stopped a civil war."

"In the confrontation with rebels, our comrades-in-arms, pilots, were killed. They did not flinch and honourably fulfilled their orders and their military duty," he said, before holding a minute's silence in their memory, without saying how many died.

(With inputs from agencies)

WATCH WION LIVE HERE