On Wednesday, the US presidential administration announced an additional $ 800 million in military aid to Ukraine, bringing the total to more than $ 2.4 billion since the Russian offensive.
Biden said in a statement after a phone call with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zhelensky that the package included artillery shells, artillery shells, armored carriers and helicopters.
In another development, the Russian Ministry of Defense on Wednesday confirmed the complete control of the Ukrainian commercial port of Mariupol.
“All hostages aboard the ships in the port of Mariupol have been released,” Russian Defense said.
For his part, Ukrainian President Zhelensky, in a speech to the Estonian parliament on Wednesday, accused Russia of using phosphorus bombs in Ukraine and using Moscow as a means of intimidating civilians.
The Ukrainian president did not provide evidence for his words, and Reuters has not been able to verify his allegations independently.
Zhelensky said Russia must find tools to stop the forced deportation of Ukrainians, and called on Moscow to pursue sanctions against it, saying it was the only way to accept peace.
Earlier, Ukrainian President Zhelensky said on Wednesday that he could not reach a 100% definitive conclusion on whether Russian forces had used chemical weapons in Mariupol. A formal investigation is not possible in the besieged city.
In a speech in the early hours of the morning, Zhelensky described how some in Russia had repeatedly threatened to use chemical weapons. The West must act now to stop the use of such weapons.
This comes as Russia said on Wednesday that allegations by the United States and Ukraine that chemical weapons could be used in Ukraine were false, as Moscow destroyed its last chemical reserves in 2017.
Ukraine and its allies have expressed concern over the use of chemical weapons in the war, following an unconfirmed report that Russia used chemical weapons in the besieged southern port city of Mariupol last Monday night. But in the next 24 hours it became difficult to find evidence of an attack.
The Russian embassy in Washington has said it is preparing to encourage Ukrainian militants to use chemical weapons, and that Foreign Ministry spokesman Price is spreading false information. “We urge Washington to stop spreading false information,” the embassy said in a statement.
The Ukrainian president mocked Moscow’s claim that the war against his country was going well, and wondered how President Putin could have approved the plan, which included a large number of Russian deaths.
Russian President Vladimir Putin
On Tuesday, Putin said Russia would achieve all its “lofty” goals and would continue its own operations in Ukraine “harmoniously and peacefully,” citing the operation launched on February 24.
“Frankly, no one in the world understands how to draw such a plan in the first place,” Zhelensky added in a video conference.
Zhelensky asked how many Russian dead soldiers would be accepted by Putin, and gave the range from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands.
He said Moscow had lost more people in the 48 days since the start of the war than it had lost in the ten-year war in Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989.
However, Zhelensky went back and pointed out, “We must understand that not all Russian tanks are trapped in the yard. And not all soldiers simply flee the battlefield. Use the weapons properly. This does not mean that we should be afraid of them … We must underestimate the achievements of our fighters and our army.” This means not to be underestimated.
A senior Pentagon official said US officials could not confirm reports that Russian forces had used chemical weapons in the town of Mariupol in the Donbass area.
The official told reporters on Tuesday, “We are not on the ground, we do not have full vision, so we are doing everything we can to achieve the best results. We are still reading this.”
The official accused Russia of “using chemical weapons in the past” and Washington took the news “seriously”.
Earlier, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the news from Ukraine about the “possibility” of Russia using toxic substances in Mariupol was “very dangerous.”
“Creator. Award-winning problem solver. Music evangelist. Incurable introvert.”
