U.S.Bought Ukraine A Defensive System to Neutralize Missiles Raining on Them
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| Ukrainian soldiers in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine last month. The Biden administration will announce this week that it is sending Ukraine an advanced air defense system, an official familiar with the decision said on Monday.Credit...Finbarr O'Reilly for The New York Times |
The United States will announce this week that it is sending Ukraine an advanced air defense system, U.S. officials said on Monday, ramping up President Biden’s pledge to give the country the military equipment it needs to defend against Russian aggression.
The Biden administration will buy Ukraine a NASAMS system — an advanced, medium-to-long-range surface-to-air missile defense system — that will allow Ukraine to defend its forces from greater distances, an official familiar with the decision said.
Mr. Biden’s decision to authorize the new system came just a day after Russia fired missiles into Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, as leaders of the Group of 7 wealthy nations were beginning a summit in Germany.
Jake Sullivan, Mr. Biden’s national security adviser, told reporters at the G7 summit that the United States intended “to finalize a package that includes advanced medium- and long-range air defense capabilities for the Ukrainians,” but did not provide further details on any specific system.
He said the package would include “some other items that are of urgent need, including ammunition for artillery and counter-battery radar systems.”
The equipment will be paid for from the emergency funding that Congress passed to assist Ukraine, the official said.
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine has repeatedly asked for more advanced weapons from the United States and its allies.
Mr. Sullivan told reporters that Mr. Zelensky’s first request to the G7 leaders when he addressed them by video on Monday was for help in better defending against Russian airstrikes, like the one that rocked a Kyiv apartment building on Sunday.
“At the top of his mind was the set of missile strikes that took place in Kyiv and other cities across Ukraine,” Mr. Sullivan said, “and his desire to get additional air defense capabilities that could shoot down Russian missiles out of the sky. So the president was able to be positively responsive to him on that.”
The United States had already agreed last month to provide Ukraine with advanced rocket systems that could target enemy tanks and other military equipment from a distance of about 50 miles.
Mr. Biden announced his intention to give Ukraine those systems at the end of May. But administration officials said at the time that the president had authorized the advanced weapons only after assurances that Ukraine would not use them against targets inside Russian territory.
Mr. Sullivan said on Monday that the new decision to provide the more advanced air defense system was a reflection of the evolving nature of the conflict in Ukraine.
“What we’re trying to do at this point is tailor our military assistance to the particular immediate needs of the Ukrainians on the battlefield at a given point in time,” he told reporters at the summit in Germany.
“Months ago, that was really about anti-tank and anti-air systems like Stingers,” Mr. Sullivan said. “Then it became about artillery. Now, increasingly, it’s about some of these sophisticated systems.”
After a weekend of strikes, sirens bring anxiety even in Ukraine’s safest cities.
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LVIV, Ukraine — The all-too-familiar blare of an air raid siren signaled rockets within striking distance of this city in western Ukraine on Monday afternoon. It was the fifth time in less than 48 hours.
With each siren, nerves have grown more frayed.
The dozens of missiles launched by Russian forces into Ukraine over the weekend have raised anxiety, even in the relative peace of the country’s northwest. The air raid alarms that had grown sporadic are becoming more frequent, renewing fears that it may only be a matter of time before missiles target civilians in what have been considered Ukraine’s safest cities.
Staff members at the Lviv National Art Gallery, who had recently returned to work when the gallery reopened last month after being closed for weeks, walked with purpose into the basement along with a handful of visitors to wait out the alarm on Monday. The women, who normally keep an eye on the museum’s visitors, gathered in one corner of the basement and turned to their phones, scrolling for updates on where missiles had been fired or checking in with family members.
In some ways this precaution has become routine, but it took on a new level of urgency after a weekend filled with strikes that triggered alarms over large swathes of the country several times a day.
Many in Lviv watched in horror as explosions rattled a residential area of the capital, Kyiv, on Sunday morning, destroying three floors of a nine-story building. One person was killed and two others injured.
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On Saturday, some 50 missiles rained down across the country, hours before President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia met with President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko of Belarus in St. Petersburg.
“It was a bit calmer before the weekend, and there were fewer air alarms,” said one museum worker, Mariia Kunor, 65. “And now, we feel bigger anxiety for ourselves, our children, and our grandchildren.”
When the siren began wailing on Monday afternoon, Andriy Sadovyi, the mayor of Lviv, shared a photo of the huge swath of the country covered by the alarm, which was triggered by rockets launched from Belarus. He asked, “Belarusians, where’s the brotherhood and being a good neighbor?”
Liudmyla Posliedova, 72, another of the museum employees, said that every siren now raised fears that a missile could strike Lviv, which has been spared the worst of the war.
“After all of the things happening in Kyiv,” Ms. Posliedova said, “we’ve felt so sorry for people, the women, children who lost apartments or houses.”
She added that she also feared for all of the internally displaced people from the east of the country who had come to Lviv for shelter and must again deal with the stress that the sirens bring.
“The more air alarms we have, the more anxiety we have, and nothing helps ease that,” said her colleague, Lesia Sannytska, 62.
Elsewhere in the city, pedestrians walked to underground street crossings to wait out the siren, clutching their phones and looking for updates that would give them a sense of whether or not there had been any strikes nearby. Others leaned against archways to get out of the streets — even as countless other pedestrians continued about their day.
Halyn Telep, 59, said that up until last week, it seemed that everyone had calmed down a bit.
“And now, of course, the feeling of anxiety is growing,” said Ms. Telep, one of the museum workers. “What can we do? We are constantly worried.”
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