The ships of the “Island” class have departed from Baltimore, USA, and will dock in Odessa, southern Ukraine. According to the statement, the ships are part of the $2.5 billion in military aid that the United States has provided to Ukraine since 2014. The US embassy noted that the ships are working to increase compatibility between the Ukrainian Navy and NATO forces.
Ukrainian news portal Pravda reported that on September 7, Ukrainian sailors arrived in the United States to participate in training on these ships. Oksana Markarova, the Ukrainian ambassador to the United States, wrote on Facebook on October 22 that three such patrol ships are expected to arrive in Ukraine in November, MTI reports.
During Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to the United States in early September, it was agreed that Ukraine would receive an additional $60 million in additional military support from the US government, on top of the previously agreed $250 million, “a significant increase in Russian military activity along its borders.” , for violating the ceasefire in eastern Ukraine and for other provocations. The defense ministers of the two countries signed a document in this regard in Washington, which also includes the delivery of new Javelin anti-tank missiles. In October, two shipments of weapons and medical equipment arrived in Ukraine as part of this additional support.
But in Moscow it is not well accepted that the West supplies Ukraine with weapons and military equipment. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zharova told a press briefing that the arrival of weapons and military equipment to Ukraine and the training centers set up by NATO members in the country reinforces Kiev’s conviction that a violent solution can be reached in the Donetsk Basin. We call on Western capitals pumping arms into Ukraine – primarily Washington, but also Berlin and Paris as members of the Normandy format – to stop encouraging the militarization of the country and use their influence to bring Kiev back to it politically and diplomatic means will lead to a lasting peace in the country. Donetsk basin.
Before that, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Turkey’s supply of drones to Ukraine could destabilize the Donetsk Basin. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said – in response to the Ukrainian army’s first deployment of a Turkish-made Bayraktar drone in the conflict zone of the Donetsk Basin – that Ukraine uses these drones only for defensive purposes.
