In an opinion piece in the New York Times, Biden said, “We moved quickly to send a large amount of arms and ammunition to Ukraine so that it could fight on the battlefield and be in the strongest possible position at the negotiating table.”
“We do not encourage Ukraine and we do not enable it to launch military strikes beyond its borders,” Biden said.
He added: “As long as the United States and its allies are not attacked, we will not be directly involved in the conflict.”
“We do not seek war between NATO and Russia,” the US president emphasized.
A US Defense Department official announced that the Hymers system would be delivered to Ukrainian forces in the coming weeks.
In his statement to “Sky News Arabia”, the Pentagon official said that the Ukrainian forces will receive, in the coming weeks, the Hymers missile artillery system, adding that this “does not threaten Russia.”
He noted that the Defense Support Group for Ukraine will meet in two weeks in Brussels and announce a new military and defense aid package for Kiev.
The talk about the Hymers system comes after Biden ruled out providing Ukraine with multiple missile launchers “MLRS” capable of reaching Russian territory.
And CNN quoted senior US officials as saying that the Biden administration was preparing to upgrade the type of weapons it provides to Ukraine.
Ukrainian officials, on more than one occasion, have called for “stronger and heavier weapons” to counter the continued advance of Russian forces, which have recently focused all their efforts on the Donetsk and eastern Luhansk regions.
Heimser system
The Hymers (M142) is a highly mobile artillery rocket system, a light rocket launcher developed in the late 1990s for the US Army.
“HIMARS” carries six missiles or one “MGM-140 ATACMS” missile on the “FMTV” medium tactical vehicle, which weighs five tons.
It has a range of about 480 km, along with a launch speed of 85 km per hour.
And the American “Forbes” website said that the “HIMARS” system, which is produced by “Lockheed Martin”, can help Ukrainian forces eliminate some Russian artillery units that were concentrated in eastern Ukraine.
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