President Joe Biden announced Wednesday that the United States would send an additional $1 billion in military aid to Ukraine.
Biden stated the U.S. would provide “additional artillery and coastal defense weapons, as well as ammunition for the artillery and advanced rocket systems that the Ukrainians need to support their defensive operations in the Donbas.”
Additionally, Biden said $225 million in humanitarian aid would be sent to help with Ukrainian shortages in medical supplies, healthcare, food, shelter, and safe drinking water.
In response to the announcement, Vassily Nebenzia, Russian Ambassador to the U.N., told reporters on Wednesday that he believed the United States and other Western governments are “fighting a proxy war with Russia,” per Reuters.
He added, “I would like to say to the Western countries supplying weaponry to Ukraine – the blood of civilians is on your hands.”
Biden’s announcement will bring the total dollar amount of military aid provided by the United States to Ukraine to more than $5.6 billion since Russia invaded the country in late February, per the Department of State.
The latest round of aid comes as the Ukrainian military sustains heavy casualties in the contested Donbas region, where the majority of fighting is now taking place.
On June 1, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that 60 to 100 Ukrainian soldiers died daily in the war. Two weeks later, that number shot up to between 200 and 500 a day in the Donbas region alone, with many more wounded, according to Axios.
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley, stated recently that Russia is also taking heavy losses, as much as “20 to 30% of their armored forces,” and that the Ukrainian military was fighting effectively after U.S. training, per the Washington Examiner.
