Kyiv - Russian troops on Wednesday pressed their assault on a factory city they see as key to controlling a swathe of eastern Ukraine, while the Biden administration said it will send Ukraine a small number of high-tech, medium-range rocket systems, a critical weapon that its leaders have been begging for as they struggle to stall Russian progress in the Donbas region.
The U.S. decision to provide the advance rocket systems, part of a new $700 million tranche of security assistance for Ukraine, tries to strike a balance between the desire to help Ukraine battle ferocious Russian artillery barrages while not providing arms that could allow Ukraine to hit targets deep inside Russia and trigger an escalation in the war.
The rocket systems are part of a new $700 million tranche of security assistance for Ukraine from the U.S. that will include helicopters, Javelin anti-tank weapon systems, tactical vehicles, spare parts and more, senior administration officials reportedly said on Tuesday.
Us is providing high mobility artillery rocket systems that can accurately hit targets as far away as 80 km (50 miles) after Ukraine gave "assurances" they will not use the missiles to strike inside Russia, senior administration officials said.
Shortly after the U.S. decision was announced, the Russian defence ministry said Russia's nuclear forces were holding drills in the Ivanovo province, northeast of Moscow, the Interfax news agency reported.
Some 1,000 servicemen were exercising in intense manoeuvres using more than 100 vehicles including Yars intercontinental ballistic missile launchers, it cited the ministry as saying.
There was no mention of the U.S. decision to supply new weapons in the Interfax report.
Ukraine's General Staff said Russian forces, now 98 days into their invasion, were also pounding targets including key infrastructure in other eastern and southern areas, including the city of Sievierodonetsk, an industrial centre that has been the main focus of Russia's offensive in recent days.
If Russia captures Sievierodonetsk, and its smaller twin Lysychansk on the higher west bank of the Siverskyi Donets river, it will hold all of Luhansk, a key war aim of President Vladimir Putin's forces.
-AP/Reuters