WASHINGTON, September 8. /TASS/. The US will hand over additional ammunition for HIMARS multiple launch rocket systems, a new batch of HARM anti-radar missiles and four 105-mm howitzers to Kiev within the new aid package, the Pentagon press office announced Thursday.

In addition, the US will ship 36,000 105-mm artillery shells, 100 armored cars, over 5,000 anti-tank systems, 1.5 million small arms rounds, grenade launchers and small arms, medical armored cars and night vision systems.

The new aid package is worth $675 million, the weapons will be shipped from the Pentagon’s stock. The total amount of US military aid to Kiev during the Biden administration currently stands at about $15.2 billion, and $17.2 billion since 2014.

On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that, in response to a request from the Donbass republics, he made a decision to carry out a special military operation in Ukraine. He underscored that Moscow does not plan to occupy Ukrainian territories, instead planning to demilitarize and denazify the country. In response, the West started introducing numerous large-scale sanctions against Russia and shipping weapons and military vehicles to Kiev already worth tens of billions of dollars at this point. A number of Western political figures acknowledged that this is effectively an economic war against Russia. On March 16, Putin stated that the Western sanctions policy against Moscow has all hallmarks of aggression, adding that the policy of deterrence of Russia is the long-term strategy of the West.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and other Russian officials repeatedly drew attention to the danger of spread of weapons being shipped to Ukraine to other regions. Russian Ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov warned that the militarization of Ukraine directly threatens European and global security.