Ukraine-Russia war: US ‘rushing’ new Patriot missiles to Kyiv, Pentagon says

He also defended what he called “entirely reasonable” calls from US counterparts for greater European defence spending.

Ukraine’s air defence shot down 21 of 34 Russian missiles fired in an overnight attack, the commander of the Ukrainian air force said today.

Mykola Oleschuk said Ukrainian fighter planes, air defence missile units, mobile fire groups and means of radio-electronic warfare were involved in repelling the Russian missile strikes.

The new $61bn (£49bn) US aid package for Ukraine approved by Congress will undoubtedly improve the country’s battlefield position. Stocks of ammunition from US bases in Poland and Germany can now be shipped quickly to existing Ukrainian forces and allow newly mobilised troops to be equipped.

Critics of Ukraine’s mobilisation law, recently passed by the parliament in Kyiv, argued it made little sense to draft more men if there were no weapons to arm them: now that concern can be discarded.

The US package includes weapons Ukraine has long sought after and which can make a significant difference in the war, like long-range ATACMS missiles. These will improve Volodymyr Zelensky’s capability to threaten and destroy Russian military targets in occupied Crimea, forcing Russia to withdraw its equipment, enhancing Black Sea security.

The US vote also provides an important boost to morale, restoring hope that Western partners are delivering on their promises and sending a powerful signal to Russia.

Even amid war, Ukraine finds time for the glittery, pop-filled Eurovision Song Contest. Perhaps now even more than ever.

Ukraine’s entrants in the pan-continental music competition — the female duo of rapper alyona alyona and singer Jerry Heil — set off from Kyiv for the competition on Thursday. In wartime, that means a long train journey to Poland, from where they will travel on to next month’s competition in Malmö, Sweden.

“We need to be visible for the world,” Ms Heil said at Kyiv train station before her departure. “We need to show that even now, during the war, our culture is developing, and that Ukrainian music is something waiting for the world” to discover.

Drone patents have soared across the world amid a “new arms race” as the technology is applied increasingly on the battlefield, experts have warned.

Data from the World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO) showed that patents filed for technology relating to drones surged by 16 per cent between 2022 and 2023. This represented an increase from 16,800 in 2022 to 19,700 in 2023 – with China, Russia and the US among the top five countries developing the technology.

Marcel Plichta, a former analyst at the US Department of Defense, told The Independent that the scramble for patents marks a new global arms race for a new kind of warfare.

He said: “This is part of a new global arms race. It’s different to a more traditional arms race of tanks and rifles, and is spurred on much more by the tech sector – especially in Ukraine and Russia, where this sort of technology is being developed to get around attrition warfare, where it is difficult to make any real sort of progress.

A Ukrainian court ordered the detention of the country’s farm minister in the latest high-profile corruption investigation, while Kyiv security officials assessed how they can recover lost battlefield momentum in the war against Russia.

Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court ruled that agriculture minister Oleksandr Solskyi should be held in custody for 60 days, but he was released after paying bail of 75 million hryvnias ($1.77m), a statement said.

Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau suspects Solskyi headed an organized crime group that between 2017 and 2021 unlawfully obtained land worth 291 million hryvnias ($6.85m) and attempted to obtain other land worth 190 million hryvnias ($4.47m).

Russia attacked Ukrainian energy facilities in three regions in the early hours today, officials said.

The attacks damaged equipment and injured at least one energy worker, Ukrainian energy minister German Galushchenko said.

Russian strikes targeted the Dnipropetrovsk region in central Ukraine and the western regions of Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk, Mr Galushchenko said on Telegram.

The number of missiles used by Russia in these attacks is not immediately clear.

Ukraine’s foreign minister doubled down on the government’s move to bolster the pool of fighting forces by cutting off consular services to conscription-age men outside the country, saying it was a question of “justice.”

Foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba yesterday said the policy would ensure men in Ukraine and those who have left were both treated fairly.

“It’s about justice – justice in the relationship between Ukrainian men abroad and Ukrainian men inside of Ukraine,” he said.

Tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers have been killed or wounded in more than two years of fighting. Russia has also suffered heavy losses, but has vastly more conscripts to throw into the fight.

Poland, home to hundreds of thousands of displaced Ukrainians, has indicated it’s willing to help ensure military-age men go home. The defence ministry said in a statement that “Poland is ready to assist Ukraine due to the needs of the Ukrainian army,” and that bilateral talks would be needed to agree on the arrangements.

General CQ Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the $1bn weapons package cleared by the Biden administration for Ukraine will have a key benefit. “There’s some near-term effects,” said General Brown, who stood alongside defence secretary Lloyd Austin at the Pentagon briefing.

“Now the Ukrainians don’t necessarily have to ration what they have because they know things are coming out of this package and there will be follow-on packages.”

The White House, earlier this week, approved the delivery of $1bn in weapons and equipment to Ukraine. Those weapons include a variety of ammunition, such as air defence munitions and large amounts of artillery rounds that are much in demand by Ukrainian forces, as well as armoured vehicles and other weapons.

That aid, however, will get to Ukraine quickly because it is being pulled off Pentagon shelves, including in warehouses in Europe.

The Pentagon has said it is “rushing” to provide fresh arms supplies to Ukraine and specifically dispatching more Patriot air defence missiles and artillery ammunition, as it finalised a new $6bn aid package.

“Together we’ll continue to work on two tracks, rushing Ukraine the capabilities to meet its urgent battlefield needs and helping Ukraine to build the future force to stave off and deter Russian aggression over the longer term,” US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin said in a news conference after a virtual meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group, calling the Russian invasion of Ukraine “Putin’s war of choice”.

He added: “On that first track, we pushed especially hard today to rush in more air defence systems and Interceptors. And on the second, this contact group is working with Ukraine to help it move forward — help it move toward a robust, efficient and self-reliant defence industry.”

Yesterday, the Pentagon announced that it will buy $6bn worth of new weapons for Ukraine including interceptors for the Patriot air defence system, the single largest assistance package president Joe Biden’s administration has provided.

This package has been provided through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) using funding appropriated by the national security supplemental which president Biden signed into law, the US Department of Defence said in a release.

This will include equipment to “augment Ukraine’s air defences, fires, and artillery, and to sustain capabilities previously committed by the United States”.