Pentagon Ready To Provide Ukraine With Additional Military Aid Of $125Mln - Reports

The Pentagon has notified the US Congress that the ongoing political reforms in Ukraine have allowed for the further allocation of $125 million in military assistance to the country, CNN reported on Thursday, citing sources

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th May, 2020) The Pentagon has notified the US Congress that the ongoing political reforms in Ukraine have allowed for the further allocation of $125 million in military assistance to the country, CNN reported on Thursday, citing sources.

According to the media outlet, proof that Ukraine has advanced in the fight against corruption, increased transparency and enhanced public oversight is required by law to continue providing military aid to Kiev.

This is the second installment of the $250 million security aid package approved by the US Senate Committee on Appropriations in September for the fiscal year 2020. It is assumed that, within its framework, Ukraine will receive mobile radar systems designed to track artillery and rocket fire, several dozen ambulances, secure communications equipment and two patrol boats equipped with 30-mm automatic guns with remote control.

Russia has repeatedly warned Western countries that sending weapons to Ukraine will escalate the conflict in the country's east and hinder the implementation of the Minsk agreements.

Many European politicians have also spoken against the supply of arms to Ukraine. Former OSCE chairman, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, has stated that making arms deliveries to Kiev was a very risky and counterproductive way to resolve the crisis in Donbas.

The conflict in the eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, known together as Donbas, began in 2014. Parts of these regions proclaimed independence after what they considered to be a coup in Kiev, and the Ukrainian government launched an offensive in retaliation. Despite the parties agreeing to a ceasefire as a result of multiple rounds of international mediation via the so-called Normandy Format and the Trilateral Contact Group, occasional shelling on the line of control still takes place.