The United States will send four more High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS, to Ukraine as a part of an upcoming military aid package, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Wednesday.
The latest package, which Austin said would be announced in more detail later this week, brings the total number of the Lockheed Martin HIMARS provided from the U.S. to Ukraine to 16, and four more from other countries, while the defense minister in Kyiv says they need almost three times that amount to “hold back the enemy” effectively.
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Roughly 200 Ukrainian soldiers have been trained on the weapons from U.S. soldiers out of the country, Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters from the Pentagon briefing room alongside Austin.
“Today, the Ukrainians are effectively employing these HIMARS strikes against Russian command and control nodes, their logistical networks, their field artillery and air defense sites, and many other targets,” Milley said. “These strikes are steadily degrading the Russian ability to supply their troops command and control of their forces and carry out their illegal war of aggression.”
The U.S. weapons ship on average “about 48-72 hours” after the president signs the order and reach the front lines within “a week or so,” he added. In total, the aid exceeds $7 billion before the upcoming package.
Ukrainian Minister of Defense Oleksii Reznikov said on Tuesday that his forces have already used the HIMARS to “destroy approximately 30 command stations” but said they needed “at least” a hundred to launch an “effective” counterattack against Russia.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told state media on Wednesday that Russia’s military objectives in Ukraine have now expanded beyond the Donbas region in the eastern part of the country. In the time since choosing to refocus on the Donbas, Russia has taken Luhansk but remains far from capturing Donetsk, though its military has taken additional territory, mainly in the south, including in the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson areas.
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“That’s not a surprise to any of us or anybody in Europe or anybody around the globe,” Austin said. “I think he’s talking to the people in Russia, who have been ill-informed throughout. You’ve heard us mention this before, in terms of what Putin’s objectives are. He has stated a number of times that this is a limited operation focused on the Donbas, his actions have proven otherwise, and we have known or suspected, not suspected, but known our allies and partners have known that he has greater ambitions, and Lavrov just confirmed that today.”
The comments from Milley and Austin occurred after the pair met with defense leaders across the globe in the Defense Contact Group that meets monthly to discuss the war in Ukraine.
