US weapons surge ramps up conflict

The United States is funneling hundreds of millions of dollars more in military assistance to Ukraine that includes "new capabilities", in an apparent escalation of the conflict in Eastern Europe.

US President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced an additional $800 million in support and expanded the scope of the weapons systems provided.

The US tab for military aid to Ukraine, which is not a member of NATO, now stands at $2.6 billion.

The latest installment includes artillery systems, armored personnel carriers and unmanned coastal defense vessels.

"This new package of assistance will contain many of the highly effective weapons systems we have already provided and new capabilities tailored to the wider assault we expect Russia to launch in eastern Ukraine," Biden said in a statement.

The package, according to the Pentagon, includes 11 Mi-17 helicopters that had been earmarked for Afghanistan before the US-backed government collapsed last August, and 18 155mm howitzers, along with counter-artillery radars and 200 armored personnel carriers. It is the first time the US has provided howitzers to Ukraine.

The expanded range of the equipment is giving the conflict, which started on Feb 24, an air of a proxy war between the US and Russia.

Ron Paul, a former US congressman and presidential candidate, wrote on Wednesday that "it sure seems like the Biden administration is doing all it can to prolong the war in Ukraine".

"On the contrary, Biden openly calling for regime change and a war crimes trial makes diplomacy nearly impossible. Why prolong the fighting?" Paul wrote in a blog post on the website Antiwar.

"US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan gave us a hint, when he told NBC News over the weekend that the US wants 'a weakened and isolated Russia'."

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said on Wednesday that some of the military equipment, like the howitzers and radars, will require training for Ukrainian forces.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov, in an interview published on Russian news website RT on Wednesday, said that regular contact with the US was not possible due to "Washington's unabashed support for militaristic intentions of the Kyiv regime (and) the pouring of modern weapons" into the country.

Warning issued

"We are warning that American-NATO transports carrying weapons across the Ukrainian territory are considered legitimate military targets," he added.

Ryabkov said that Western economic sanctions on Russia failed to achieve their objective and that Washington "is irritated by our calm focus on the tasks of stabilizing the economy and ensuring its sustained functioning in the environment of unprecedented foreign pressure".

On March 18, Zhao Lijian, a spokesman for China's Foreign Ministry, said of previous US military assistance to Ukraine: "Will the latest US assistance of weapons bring stability and security to Ukraine or cause more civilian casualties? Which do the civilians in Ukraine need more, food and sleeping bags or machine guns and mortar rounds? It won't be difficult for anyone in his right mind with a shred of common sense to make the right call."

The latest US aid will be funded using the Presidential Drawdown Authority, in which the president can authorize the transfer of articles and services from US stocks without congressional approval in response to a deemed emergency.

Agencies contributed to this story.