US to give $3 bn in military aid as Ukraine marks 6 months of war
The United States will announce $3 billion in fresh military aid to Kyiv as Ukraine marks its independence day as well as the six-month anniversary of the Russian invasion.
A US official confirmed the planned White House announcement even as Washington warned that Moscow could be planning a surge in strikes on major civilian targets coinciding with the independence day observations, and as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged citizens to be on guard against "Russian terror."
The new tranche of American funding will help Kyiv acquire more weaponry, ammunition and other supplies for its armed forces, locked in a grinding war of attrition with Russian troops in the east and south with neither side advancing significantly in weeks.
In Moscow, the Kremlin warned it would show "no mercy" over the assassination of Daria Dugina, the daughter of an ultranationalist intellectual allied with President Vladimir Putin, which it blamed on Ukraine.
Kyiv has denied responsibility for the Saturday bombing, which apparently targeted Dugina's father Alexander Dugin.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the investigation into the attack would be completed soon.
"According to the results of this investigation, there can be no mercy for those who organised, ordered and carried out" the car bombing, he said.
