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The Defense Department is still weighing all options and the decision to send four more HIMARS is not yet final, one of the DoD officials said, noting that U.S. contributions to Ukraines effort are made in consultation with allies and partners.

The decision will be based on Ukrainian immediate needs, the official said.

The two DoD officials asked for anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record. A spokesperson for the Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The administration expects to approve a number of additional HIMARS in the upcoming package, a third U.S. official said, though this person stressed that the next tranche of aid is still being developed at the Pentagon level and the final number could change at the last minute.

We expect to be transferring more HIMARS and more [guided] rounds soon, the person said.

Even though the number of HIMARS would be doubled, top Ukrainian officials say they need many more such systems, along with longer-range munitions, to destroy Moscows artillery across a battlefield that stretches for hundreds of miles.

The Russians are 200 kilometers on our land, Oleksandra Sasha Ustinova, a member of Ukraines parliament, told POLITICO. To shoot them there, we need a long range to be used on our territory, because otherwise, its just a ping pong game of artillery.

Ustinova said the four HIMARS already approved wont be enough. We asked for 10 times more, she said.

The internal discussions about sending more HIMARS come as top Ukrainian officials traveled to Washington this week to plead for additional aid to help their forces counter Russias steady advance in the Donbas. Ustinova and other officials spent the week meeting with lawmakers as well as administration officials, they said. On Saturday, Russian forces were slowly taking territory in the city of Severodonetsk, one of the last remaining Ukrainian strongholds in the region.

The Lockheed Martin-made rocket systems are a step up from the M777 howitzers towed artillery with a range of 20 miles the U.S. has been sending to Ukraine. The first group of 60 Ukrainians have wrapped up training on the HIMARS, and the four systems already approved to be donated will be delivered to the front lines by the end of the month, Gen. Mark Milley, the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in Brussels this week.

Top U.S. officials say the new rocket launchers, along with precision munitions, will prove effective in countering Russias advancing forces in the Donbas.

If they use the weapon properly and its employed properly, they ought to be able to take out a significant amount of targets, Milley said. That will make a difference.

But Kyiv is asking for more a lot more. Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is calling on the West to supply 300 rocket launchers, 500 tanks and 1,000 howitzers.

If Ukraine is not given weapons, heavy weapons, air defense and missile defense today, then we wont be able to survive this war, Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar told POLITICO this week.

But not only does Kyiv want hundreds more rocket launchers, officials are also pleading for longer-range munitions. HIMARS can be outfitted with rockets that can strike targets nearly 200 miles away, but the Biden administration so far has decided not to provide the longest-range munitions for fear of provoking Vladimir Putin into escalating the conflict.

Ukrainian officials say they need the longer-range munitions to gain a critical advantage on a battlefield that now stretches for hundreds of miles.

The problem is the front line is about 800 miles now, David Arakhamia, the majority leader of the Ukrainian Parliament and chief negotiator between Russia and Ukraine, told POLITICO. Kyiv needs to be able to destroy Russian air defense systems from hundreds of miles away so that Ukrainian forces can use drones and other weapons without worrying they will be shot down.

The White House fears that Ukraine would use long-range rockets to strike targets inside Russia, but Arakhamia said Kyiv has assured Washington that the weapons will be used only inside Ukraine.

We are ready to sign any guarantees in written format, he said, even offering to vote on it in parliament. Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov recently wrote a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin making that guarantee, Ustinova said.

Still, the U.S. official said they did not expect the administration to approve long-range projectiles in the upcoming package.

Ustinova said 500 soldiers are dying or wounded on the battlefield each day.

One of the strategies the foreign partners are looking at is exhausting Putin. Im sorry, we are exhausting our own people. We are literally losing our people, she said. Four HIMARS is nothing.

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U.S. officials weigh doubling the number of rocket launchers sent to Ukraine - POLITICO

Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi (left), German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (second left), Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (center), French President Emmanuel Macron (second right), and Romanian President Klaus Iohannis meet at the Ukrainian presidential compound Thursday in a collective show of European support for Ukraine in its war against Russia. Ludovic Marin/AP hide caption

Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi (left), German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (second left), Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (center), French President Emmanuel Macron (second right), and Romanian President Klaus Iohannis meet at the Ukrainian presidential compound Thursday in a collective show of European support for Ukraine in its war against Russia.

KYIV, Ukraine Four European leaders took the train to Ukraine's capital Thursday and met President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a show of unity for a country struggling to hold back the Russian military.

In the eyes of many Ukrainians, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi have all been too accommodating toward Russia.

For each of them, this was the first trip to Ukraine since the war began, and doing so jointly was a clear attempt to show strong European backing for Ukraine. The fourth leader, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, is already seen as a solid supporter of Ukraine. His country has taken in some 800,000 Ukrainian refugees.

The leaders held talks their talks with Zelenskyy at the heavily fortified presidential compound on a hilltop overlooking the city. At an outdoor press conference afterward, the four visiting leaders, all in suits and ties, stood on either side of Zelenskyy, in his trademark olive t-shirt.

Zelenskyy said he trusted the commitments made by the leaders, though no new assistance for Ukraine was announced.

"I am very happy with the discussions we have had today," he said.

The four leaders arrived in Kyiv by train because Ukraine's civilian airports have been shut down by the war. Air raid sirens went off shortly after they arrived.

The European leaders first visited Irpin, a suburb of the capital where Russian troops were accused of widespread abuses in the early days of the war.

French President Emmanuel Macron (center), German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (right), and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi travel by train to Kyiv after departing from Poland. The three leaders met later with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to talk about the war in Ukraine. Ludovic Marin/AP hide caption

French President Emmanuel Macron (center), German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (right), and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi travel by train to Kyiv after departing from Poland. The three leaders met later with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to talk about the war in Ukraine.

Macron denounced what he called the "barbarism" of these attacks and said there were signs the Russians had carried out "massacres."

The French leader said his trip was intended as "a message of European unity for the Ukrainian people, support now and in the future, because the weeks to come will be very difficult."

Ukrainian leaders have also been upset with Scholz, the German leader, who has said Ukraine should not lose the war, but has not gone so far as to say it should win in its fight with Russia.

But after visiting Irpin, Scholz was sharply critical of Russia, saying the damage "says a lot about the brutality of the Russian war of aggression, which is simply out to destroy and conquer."

Meanwhile, Zelenskyy welcomed the U.S. announcement Wednesday that it's sending an additional $1 billion in military aid that includes heavy weapons for the outgunned Ukrainian military.

"It's yet another sign that Western support for Ukraine is here for good," Zelenskyy said in his regular late-night address. "I'll keep asking for necessary weapons and equipment, but the bravery and skillfulness of our service members can't be imported."

Negotiations between Russia and Ukraine broke down weeks ago and no new talks are on the horizon.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin (left), and U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley speak at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Wednesday. The NATO defense ministers are meeting to discuss the war in Ukraine. The U.S. announced an additional $1 billion in military aid to Ukraine, which includes heavy weapons. Olivier Matthys/AP hide caption

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin (left), and U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley speak at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Wednesday. The NATO defense ministers are meeting to discuss the war in Ukraine. The U.S. announced an additional $1 billion in military aid to Ukraine, which includes heavy weapons.

"How can the country that rapes our women be allowed save face?" Mykhailo Podolyak, a top adviser to Zelenskyy, told NPR in an interview this week. "What do we need to win this war, to have this war come to an end? We need weapons."

Podolyak is Ukraine's chief negotiator, and in the early weeks of the war he led a team that met several times with Russian representatives. As evidence of Russian abuses mounted on the battlefield, the Ukrainian public turned against such talks.

In a poll last month, more than 80% of Ukrainians said they were unwilling to give up territory for peace, even if it means a prolonged conflict, according to the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology.

Podolyak said if Ukrainians cede territory to Russia now, even if under a temporary ceasefire, there are no guarantees Russia would not invade again later.

"A cease-fire would be a de facto Russian victory," he said. But, he added, "We are ready to agree to something so long as this [Russian] threat does not persist."

For now, Podolyak and other Ukrainian leaders say Ukraine desperately needs more artillery to combat the Russian forces that are making grinding progress in the eastern part of the country. After weeks of heavy fighting, the Russians are on the verge of capturing the city of Sievierodonetsk in the Donbas region.

Podolyak posted a wish-list of weapons on Twitter, which included requests for 1,000 howitzers, 1,000 drones and 500 tanks. He said this would give Ukraine "parity" with Russian forces.

He stressed that Ukraine is increasing dependent on Western weapons because it is running out of ammunition for its aging Soviet-era arsenal. Additional ammunition for those weapons is not widely available outside of Russia.

Ukraine has been transitioning to NATO equipment in recent years, but Podolyak says it takes European buy-in for Ukraine to fully transition to more modern systems which are made and sold worldwide.

But as long as the Russians have an advantage in artillery by a ratio of 10-to-1 or more, Ukraine will continue to struggle on the battlefield, he said.

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Ukraine welcomes US arms and leaders of France, Italy, Germany and Romania - NPR

Bottom line right now, we just need to get as much as possible across the border, a U.S. official said, referencing potential storage facilities in Poland and other nearby countries.

The Biden administration and European allies have been working for weeks to build out the European Unions solidarity lanes, a patchwork of ad hoc rail and truck land routes out of Ukraine, with the eventual goal of shipping the bulk of the grain to Romanias seaports, so it can reach fragile countries across Africa and the Middle East reeling from food shortages and severe drought. But for now, theyre trying to keep it from being stolen by Russian forces or spoiling in makeshift containers inside Ukraine as the fighting continues.

Ukrainian officials are warning that the storage problem will get only worse with the summer harvest. As Biden made his remarks about the silo plans this week, Ukraines deputy food minister Markiyan Dmytrasevych was warning members of the European Parliament his country will be short 10 million to 15 million tons of grain storage by October.

That is why we have an urgent need to set up temporary grain storages, Dmytrasevych told the European lawmakers.

The EUs Maja Bakran said Wednesday that the EU is cooperating with like-minded international partners, like the U.S., U.K., Canada [and] Japan, to ramp up land-based exports. They have welcomed the solidarity lanes and are certainly contributing in the implementation, she said.

The EU hopes that its overland plan could help increase exports by several million tons per month. Ukrainian officials also said this week theyve been working to create more storage capacity within the country. Theyre currently exporting only a fraction of the 5 million to 6 million tons of grain per month that normally is exported via Ukraines seaports during its summer wheat harvest, which begins in just a few weeks.

Everyone wants to help, we just dont know how. If we could do teleportation [of the grain] it would help a lot, an EU official said.

There are still immense logistical problems to work out, a second U.S. official said of the overland plans. The biggest hurdle: The land routes require exponentially more time and money to operate than shipping grain via Ukraines Black Sea ports. Biden in his remarks earlier this week noted the rail gauges between Ukraine and Poland do not match, so grain needs to be unloaded from rail cars and transferred to new rail lines at the border. The silos aim to speed up that laborious process.

The sea route is obviously the most efficient and most effective route, but its also the most problematic because you have to have Russias permission, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in an interview on Friday after food security meetings at the United Nations earlier this week. In a sense, you have to have Russias agreement. And what is the cost and price of that?

Vilsack noted the overland routes challenges with the differing rail systems, which is why the president suggested at least getting grain moved to temporary storage facilities in Poland.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack speaks at a press briefing at the White House in Washington, D.C.|Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

The U.N. continues to lead talks with Russia about reopening Black Sea access to ship Ukrainian goods. But U.S. officials are skeptical the talks will ever reach a resolution, given Moscows demand for sanctions relief in return for partially lifting its blockade. Vilsack said he discussed the Black Sea efforts during a meeting with the U.N.s humanitarian chief, Martin Griffiths, who is leading the U.N. negotiations.

I expressed to him that I continue to have some reservations and some concerns about whether Russia is truly approaching these negotiations in good faith, Vilsack said.

Turkish officials have signaled an openness to acting as a security guarantee for Ukrainian grain exports against Russian attacks in the Black Sea, but European officials say Kyiv isnt currently open to the Turkish plans or another alternative that involves shipping grain through Belarus, which has been fighting on Russias side in the war, since both options likely require sanctions relief. European officials are also looking into trying to increase exports through Ukraines Danube river ports, but its expensive and would be able to move only some of the volume.

Vilsack announced this week that the U.S. would also partner with Ukraine to rebuild and strengthen Ukraines agriculture sector, a key piece of the countrys economy. He said the increased transparency on crop production and other data from Ukraine could help cut down on foreign countries instituting food export restrictions as well as market speculation thats helped drive up commodity and food prices since Russias invasion.

Biden told a virtual gathering of nations at the Major Economics Forum Friday that with Russias war driving up inflation worldwide, threatening vulnerable countries with severe food shortages, we have to work together to mitigate the immediate fallout of this crisis.

Garrett Downs, Hanne Cokelaere and Christopher Miller contributed to this report.

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Biden races against time to unlock Ukraine's trapped grain - POLITICO

WASHINGTON Russias war in Ukraine is making clear to the U.S. Department of Defense that it must get logistics and sustainment right in the Pacific theater, the Pentagons No. 2 civilian said Monday.

Russias logistics and sustainment failures during its three-month-old invasion of Ukraine are a very hard lesson for Moscow, and the U.S. as well, U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks said at a DefenseOne event.

The Russians are operating on their own border, and yet we saw [their] substantial logistics challenges. For the United States to be effective in the Pacific, we already have a significant logistics challenge [to overcome], worsened by the reliance that we have on fuel, Hicks said. Making sure we understand how to go after that logistics challenge is one lesson that we can extrapolate, if you will, from what we see today.

Russias invasion of Ukraine almost immediately faced challenges with logistics and difficulties getting food, water and supplies to troops. It failed in its early objective of taking Kyiv and occupying a large swath of Ukraine, and has now concentrated most its forces in eastern Ukraine.

Hicks on Monday praised U.S. logistics and information sharing in coordinating allies to arm and equip Ukrainian forces. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is set this week to convene a third meeting of the U.S.-led Ukraine contact group, which has more than 40 member nations.

Beyond concerns about contested logistics, Hicks theres a strong business case for the Pentagons efforts to adopt electric vehicles as the car industry moves in that direction. While not an overnight issue, DoD is motivated at a strategic level to free that tether to fossil fuel.

I think theres a lot we can do to move the system, and when we do that were going to help ourselves with that combat credibility, particularly in places like the Pacific where the logistics lines are very long, Hicks said.

U.S. President Joe Biden signaled during a visit to Japan last month he would use military force to defend Taiwan if it were ever attacked by China, only to clarify later that strategic ambiguity remains American policy. China, meanwhile, has stepped up its military provocations against democratic Taiwan in recent years, aimed at intimidating it into accepting Beijings demands to unify with the communist mainland.

Islands in the Pacific including Guam, Hawaii and Kwajalein have virtually no local fossil fuel resources and their energy needs, including those of U.S. military installations they host, are met by imported petroleum, Hicks has said previously.

U.S. military commanders in the Pacific have warned they lack the capacity to rearm and refuel in the event of a conflict.

U.S. Indo-Pacific Command has proposed $1.02 billion in funding through 2027 to improve logistics, maintenance and prepositioning equipment for its China-focused Pacific Deterrence Initiative. The request came in April as part of the commands share of the fiscal 2023 budget request, which projected $27.1 billion for PDI overall through 2027.

Current theater logistics posture and capability to sustain the force are inadequate to support operations specifically in a contested environment, the request reads.

The Pentagons decision in March to shut down its massive Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, over water contamination problems, without a clear plan in place to fund and reconstitute this capacity, has only magnified existing logistics challenges, said Eric Sayers, a former senior adviser to U.S. Pacific Command who is now a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

Ukraine reminds us that without a robust combat logistics fleet for the Navy, aerial refueling, and heavy lift, we just flat out wont be able to sustain and shift combat power around the theater in the ways that will be required before and during an intense military operation, Sayers said. In short, the Congress should be devoting the same level of oversight to Indo-Pacific Command fuel requirements as it does to Navy fleet size or Air Force fighter procurement.

With reporting by the Associated Press.

Joe Gould is senior Pentagon reporter for Defense News, covering the intersection of national security policy, politics and the defense industry.

Original post:
Russia-Ukraine war is teaching the Pentagon a lesson about the Pacific - DefenseNews.com

As Russia intensifies push for Donbas, Ukraine rules out ceasefire

Ukraine ruled out a ceasefire or concessions to Moscow as Russia intensified an offensive in the eastern Donbas region and stopped providing gas to Finland.

After ending weeks of resistance by the last Ukrainian fighters in the strategic southeastern city of Mariupol, Russia is waging what appears to be a major offensive in Luhansk, one of two provinces in Donbas.

Russian-backed separatists already controlled swathes of territory in Luhansk and the neighboring Donetsk province before the Feb. 24 invasion, but Moscow wants to seize the last remaining Ukrainian-held territory in Donbas.

"The situation in Donbas is extremely difficult," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address. The Russian army was trying to attack the cities of Sloviansk and Sievierodonetsk, but Ukrainian forces were holding off their advance, he said.

Earlier, Zelenskiy told local television that while the fighting would be bloody, the end would come only through diplomacy and that the Russian occupation of Ukrainian territory would be temporary.

Zelenskyy adviser Mykhailo Podolyak ruled out agreeing to a ceasefire and said Kyiv would not accept any deal with Moscow that involved ceding territory. He said making concessions would backfire on Ukraine because Russia would hit back harder after any break in fighting.

"The war will not stop (after concessions). It will just be put on pause for some time," Podolyak, Ukraine's lead negotiator, told Reuters in an interview in the heavily guarded presidential office.

"They'll start a new offensive, even more bloody and large-scale."

Reuters

President Joe Biden tweeted a video of himself signing legislation authorizing an additional $40 billion in U.S. aid to Ukraine in its fight against Russia.

Biden inked the aid boost, which was overwhelmingly approved by Congress this week, during his state visit to Seoul, South Korea.

"This law will allow us to continue sending security, economic, and humanitarian assistance to the people of Ukraine as they continue to defend their democracy and freedom," the tweet from Biden's official White House Twitter account said.

Biden also during his visit signed the Access to Baby Formula Act, which is designed to alleviate a nationwide shortage of formula in the United States.

Both bills were flown to South Korea by a U.S. government official on a commercial jet who was already planning to travel to Asia for work-related duties, a White House official told NBC News.

Dan Mangan

A bus carrying service members of the Ukrainian armed forces, who surrendered at the besieged Azovstal steel mill, drives away under escort of the pro-Russian military in the course of the Ukraine-Russia conflict, in Mariupol, Ukraine May 20, 2022.

Alexander Ermochenko | Reuters

Concern mounted over the fate of the Ukrainian fighters who became Moscow's prisoners as Russia claimed seizure of the steel plant-turned-fortress in Mariupol.

The Russian Defense Ministry released video of Ukrainian soldiers being taken into custody after announcing that its forces had removed the last holdouts from the plant's miles of underground tunnels. The Azovstal steel plant became a symbol of Ukrainian tenacity, and its seizure delivers Russian President Vladimir Putin a badly wanted victory in the war he began in February.

Family members of the steel mill fighters, who authorities say came from a variety of military and law enforcement units, have pleaded for them to be given rights as prisoners of war and eventually returned to Ukraine. They are considered heroes by their fellow citizens.

Convoys of buses, guarded by Russian armored vehicles, left the plant Friday. At least some Ukrainians were taken to a former penal colony, while Russian authorities said others were hospitalized.

Denis Pushilin, the pro-Kremlin head of an area of eastern Ukraine controlled by Moscow-backed separatists, said the Ukrainians were sure to face a tribunal. Russian officials and state media have sought to characterize the fighters as neo-Nazis and criminals.

"I believe that justice must be restored. There is a request for this from ordinary people, society, and, probably, the sane part of the world community," Russian state news agency Tass quoted Pushilin as saying.

Associated Press

Former President Donald Trump speaks to supporters during a rally at the I-80 Speedway on May 01, 2022 in Greenwood, Nebraska. Trump is supporting Charles Herbster in the Nebraska gubernatorial race.

Scott Olson | Getty Images

Russia on Saturday released a list of nearly 1,000 Americans who are now permanently barred from entering the country, an action likely in response to sanctions imposed on the nation following its February invasion of Ukraine.

The list includes President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, Hillary Clinton and George Soros. It also names 211 Republicans and 224 Democrats from both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

There are also a few notable omissions. Former President Donald Trump and Mike Pence, who served as his vice president, are not included. Former President Barack Obama is also not on the list.

A spokesperson for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Read more here.

Carmen Reinicke

Superyacht Valerie, linked to chief of Russian state aerospace and defence conglomerate Rostec Sergei Chemezov, is seen at Barcelona Port in Barcelona city, Spain, March 9, 2022.

Albert Gea | Reuters

McKinsey & Co., a major global consulting firm, worked with both a Russian weapons maker and the Pentagon simultaneously, NBC News reported today.

An NBC investigation uncovered that McKinsey advised Rostec, a Russian state-owned manufacturing company in recent years. The company manufactures engines for missiles, including many of the weapons that Russia has fired on Ukraine since its February invasion.

The scope of McKinsey's work with Rostec did not directly involve weapons, according to the report. Still, the consulting firm was working on national security contracts for the U.S. government, including the Defense Department and U.S. intelligence community.

It's the latest accusation of conflicts of interest faced by McKinsey. The consulting firm previously worked with opioid manufacturers while advising officials at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on opioids. Congress has also scrutinized the company for its work in China.

A McKinsey spokesman told NBC News that it has strict rules and firewalls to safeguard against conflicts of interest, and that its work abroad is walled off from its work in Washington.

Carmen Reinicke

Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa, center, talks to media in Irpin, Ukraine, Saturday, May 21, 2022.

Efrem Lukatsky | AP Photo

Antnio Costa, Portugal's prime minister, visited Kyiv today and made a joint appearance with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to discuss aid, the president's office said in a statement.

"I once again felt such a closeness of values and a common understanding by our nations of the future of Europe. Portugal has been helping Ukraine since the first days of Russia's full-scale invasion of our land," Zelenskyy said, according to a statement.

"I am grateful to your country and to you personally, Mr. Prime Minister, for your defensive, political and humanitarian assistance, as well as for the great support for our citizens, forcibly displaced Ukrainians who fled the war and are now on the European continent in various countries, in particular in Portugal," he added.

Zelenskyy also called for Portugal's support in Ukraine's bid for accession to the European Union.

Costa is the latest of many world leaders to visit Kyiv or reach out to Zelenskyy to provide aid in recent weeks. In a tweet, he confirmed Portugal's support of Ukraine.

"We are all moved by the European choice made by Ukraine and its people and we welcome it with open arms," he said. "It is fundamental to accelerate Ukraine's political and economic convergence with the EU."

Carmen Reinicke

A soldier holds a Javelin missile system during a military exercise in the training centre of Ukrainian Ground Forces near Rivne, Ukraine May 26, 2021. Picture taken May 26, 2021.

Gleb Garanich | Reuters

Albania's defense minister said Saturday the Western Balkan country has bought anti-tank Javelin missiles to strengthen its defenses.

Niko Peleshi said Albania signed a contract with U.S. Lockheed Martin, without specifying the number of missiles, how much they cost or when they would be delivered.

Peleshi said buying the missiles was part of the army's modernization efforts.

Earlier this week, Lockheed Martin said the U.S. Army had awarded two production contracts for Javelin missiles and associated equipment and services with total value of $309 million. These contracts include more than 1300 Javelin missiles funded from the recent Ukraine Supplemental Appropriations Act and orders for several international customers including Norway, Albania, Latvia and Thailand.

"Not to create any panic, there is no concrete threat. We are a NATO member country and the national security issue resolved. We are protected," the minister told journalists.

Peleshi also said NATO is not a threat to any country, including Russia. Tirana supports the alliance's "open door" policy welcoming Finland and Sweden as new members, which Peleshi said were "two independent sovereign countries with high political, legal and also military standards."

Associated Press

Soldiers put camouflage atop a weaponized Geon Strike 1000 ATV on May 20, 2022 in Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine. The commercially sold vehicle was modified by the Ukrainian Army for use against invading Russian soldiers. Troops from the 93rd brigade have been fighting to repel a Russian advance to the south from Izium.

KHARKIV OBLAST - MAY 20: Soldiers put camouflage atop a weaponized Geon Strike 1000 ATV on May 20, 2022 in Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine. The commercially sold vehicle was modified by the Ukrainian Army for use again invading Russian soldiers. Troops from the 93rd brigade have been fighting to repel a Russian advance to the south from Izium. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

John Moore | Getty Images News | Getty Images

KHARKIV OBLAST - MAY 20: Ukrainian Army Major Oleh "Serafim" Shevchenko checks the steering on an amphibious Argo 8X8 ATV on May 20, 2022 in Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine. Shevchenko modified the Canadian made vehicle, as well as the Ukrainian made Geon Strike 1000 (L) for military use against invading Russian forces. Soldiers from the Ukrainian Army's 93rd brigade have been fighting to repel a Russian advance to the south from Izium. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

John Moore | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Soldiers put camouflage atop a weaponized Geon Strike 1000 ATV on May 20, 2022 in Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine. T

John Moore | Getty Images

KHARKIV OBLAST - MAY 20: Camouflage covers Ukrainian military ATVs on May 20, 2022 in Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine. Ukrainian Army troops from the 93rd brigade have been fighting to repel a Russian advance to the south from Izium. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

John Moore | Getty Images News | Getty Images

John Moore | Getty Images

Sat, May 21 20227:17 AM EDT

U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during a joint news conference with South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol at the Presidential office in Seoul, South Korea, May 21, 2022.

Jeon Heon-Kyun | Reuters

President Joe Biden signed legislation to support Ukraine with another $40 billion in U.S. assistance as the Russian invasion approaches its fourth month.

The legislation, which was passed by Congress with bipartisan support, deepens the U.S. commitment to Ukraine at a time of uncertainty about the war's future. Ukraine has successfully defended Kyiv, and Russia has refocused its offensive on the country's east, but American officials warn of the potential for a prolonged conflict.

The funding is intended to support Ukraine through September, and it dwarfs an earlier emergency measure that provided $13.6 billion.

The new legislation will provide $20 billion in military assistance, ensuring a steady stream of advanced weapons that have been used to blunt Russia's advances. There's also $8 billion in general economic support, $5 billion to address global food shortages that could result from the collapse of Ukrainian agriculture and more than $1 billion to help refugees.

Biden signed the measure under unusual circumstances. Because he's in the middle of a trip to Asia, a U.S. official brought a copy of the bill on a commercial flight to Seoul for the president to sign, according to a White House official.

Associated Press

Sat, May 21 20227:09 AM EDT

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has proposed a formal deal with allies outlining how to get compensation from Russia for the immense damage it has caused to Ukraine with its invasion.

"We invite partner countries to sign a multilateral agreement and create a mechanism ensuring that everybody who suffered from Russian actions can receive compensation for all losses incurred," Zelenskyy said in a video address Friday.

Under such a deal, Russian funds and property in nations which are part of the agreement would be confiscated and allocated to a compensation fund.

Ukraine's president says he will be addressing the World Economic Forum in Davos on May 23.

Ole Jensen | Getty Images News | Getty Images

"That would be fair. And Russia will feel the weight of every missile, every bomb, every shell which it has fired at us," he said, stressing that such a mechanism would prove that countries that act as invaders would have to pay for their aggression.

Several countries are discussing changing their laws to allow the redistribution of seized foreign assets for compensating war victims or rebuilding countries after war. Canada has already said it would change its laws to enable this.

Natasha Turak

Sat, May 21 20225:24 AM EDT

U.K. Boris Johnson spoke with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday, focusing on their two countries' cooperation and the war in Ukraine.

Johnson raised the issue of Turkey's opposition to Sweden and Finland's NATO membership applications, and "encouraged" Erdogan to work with both countries and NATO leaders to address his concerns, a U.K. government statement said. The 30-member alliance will be meeting in Madrid in June.

Sweden and Finland have made the decision to apply for NATO membership, which would mean a significant enlargement for the alliance along Russia's western border, as the two countries reassessed their security requirements amid Russia's war in Ukraine.

NATO requires unanimous consent to admit new members, and so far Turkey is the only state standing in the way, citing the Nordic states' support for Kurdish groups that Ankara classifies as terrorists.

Natasha Turak

Sat, May 21 20224:49 AM EDT

Representatives from the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan walked out of a meeting of ministers during theAsia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Bangkok, Thailand. The walk-out was done while Russian economy ministerMaxim Reshetnikovwas speaking, in protest to Russia's military offensive in Ukraine.

The act was" an expression of disapproval at Russia's illegal war of aggression in Ukraine and its economic impact in the APEC region," Reuters quoted one diplomat as saying.

Natasha Turak

Sat, May 21 20224:18 AM EDT

Russia is using 'reconnaissance strike' tactics which it previously used in Syria, finding targets via reconnaissance drones and then striking them with aircraft or artillery.

But Russia is "likely experiencing a shortage of appropriate reconnaissance UAVs for this task, which is exacerbated by limitations in its domestic manufacturing capacity resulting from sanctions," the U.K.'s Ministry of Defence wrote in its daily intelligence update on Twitter.

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Russia-Ukraine war updates for May 21, 2022