US vows more arms to Ukraine after Russia’s strike
WASHINGTON—President Joe Biden said on Wednesday he asked the US Defense Department to continue its surge of weapons deliveries to Ukraine after condemning Russia’s Christmas Day attack against some of Ukraine’s cities and its energy system.
“The purpose of this outrageous attack was to cut off the Ukrainian people’s access to heat and electricity during winter and to jeopardize the safety of its grid,” Biden said in a statement.
Republican President-elect Donald Trump will replace Democrat Biden on Jan. 20.
In Kyiv, Russia attacked Ukraine’s energy system and some cities with cruise and ballistic missiles plus drones in an “inhuman” Christmas Day assault, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
Nearly three years into the war, the strikes wounded at least six people in the northeastern city of Kharkiv and killed one in the region of Dnipropetrovsk, the governors there said.
Massive strike
US President Joe Biden denounced the “outrageous” attack and said he had asked the US Defense Department to push forward with a new surge of military aid to Kyiv.
Half a million people in Kharkiv region were left without heating, in temperatures just a few degrees Celsius above zero, while there were blackouts in the capital Kyiv and elsewhere.
“Today, (Russian President Vladimir) Putin deliberately chose Christmas to attack. What could be more inhuman? More than 70 missiles, including ballistic missiles, and more than a hundred attack drones,” Zelenskyy said.
Russia’s Defense Ministry confirmed it had conducted a “massive strike” on what it said were critical energy facilities supporting the work of Kyiv’s “military-industrial complex.”
“The aim of the strike was achieved. All facilities have been hit,” it said in a statement.
Ukraine’s military said its air defenses downed 59 Russian missiles and 54 drones overnight and on Wednesday morning.
Biden, who is being replaced by Donald Trump next month, said the purpose of the attack was “to cut off the Ukrainian people’s access to heat and electricity during winter and to jeopardize the safety of its grid.”
