Pentagon spokesman US Air Force Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder arrives for a media briefing at the Pentagon, June 8, 2023, in Washington. (Photo by AP)

Washington, June 10 (RHC)-- The United States has announced that it will provide an additional $2.1 billion in weapons aid for Ukraine, deepening its involvement in the war in defiance of repeated warnings by Russia.

The Pentagon announced on Friday the new package of long-term military assistance will include air defense and munitions for laser-guided rockets, an undisclosed amount of artillery rounds, and funding for training and maintenance support.  The new assistance package will include funding for more Patriot missile battery munitions, Hawk air defense systems and missiles, and small Puma drones that can be launched by hand.

It added that the U.S. aid will be provided under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative and is meant to be spent over the coming months or even years to ensure Ukraine’s future security needs.

The latest military support to Kiev shows Washington's continued commitment “to both Ukraine’s critical near-term capabilities as well as the enduring capacity of Ukraine’s Armed Forces to defend its territory and deter Russian aggression over the long term,” the Pentagon said.

Pentagon spokesman US Air Force Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder said that the U.S. military had no plans to directly provide transportation or other support to the areas damaged by the collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam on the Dnieper River -- but refused to rule it out entirely.

Washington has provided more than $37.6 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since Russia launched its special military operation in late February 2022.  Despite Washington’s continued military support to Kiev since then, the Biden administration insists will be no U.S. combat forces fighting against the Russians in Ukraine.  However, U.S. military "contractors" -- also known as mercenaries -- have reportedly been fighting on the side of Ukraine for months.

Russian officials have repeatedly announced that flooding Ukraine with weapons will only increase the destruction.

An American academic has said that Washington’s insistence on NATO enlargement to Ukraine has made the country “a victim of unachievable US military aspirations.”
Republican lawmakers have voiced concerns about the haphazard military shipments to Ukraine.

Right-wing Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene said Washington’s military aid to Ukraine was a U.S.-led “proxy war” against Russia.  She said the Ukraine war had placed a heavy financial burden on the shoulders of Americans, who were already grappling with poverty.  However, the lawmaker also admitted that war was “a deadly profitable industry” for the U.S. government.

Russia began what it described as a "special military operation" in Ukraine on February 24, 2022 as part of a national security measure against the persisting eastern advance of the U.S.-led NATO military alliance.

Moscow also said the military operation was aimed at defending the pro-Russia population in the eastern Ukrainian regions of Luhansk and Donetsk against persecution by Kiev, and also to "de-Nazify" Ukraine.