The United States will provide Ukraine with an additional $100 million in civilian security assistance, the State Department announced on Saturday.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement that the assistance would be to “build the capacity” of the Ukrainian ministry of internal affairs with a view to aid “border security, sustain civil law enforcement functions, and safeguard critical governmental infrastructure.”
TOPSHOT – A man walks in front of a destroyed building after a Russian missile attack in the town of Vasylkiv, near Kyiv, on February 27, 2022. – Ukraine’s foreign minister said on February 27, that Kyiv would not buckle at talks with Russia over its invasion, accusing President Vladimir Putin of seeking to increase “pressure” by ordering his nuclear forces on high alert. (Photo by DIMITAR DILKOFF/AFP via Getty Images)
The announcement comes the day after Russia apparently abandoned its plan to seize and hold the Ukrainian capital city Kyiv, as confirmed by several officials said Friday. As Putin faces mounting battlefield casualties and a surprising level of resistance from Ukraine’s armed forces, the additional funds will only strengthen the civilian forces who have surprised the Russian troops with both their tenacity and firepower. A senior U.S. defense official told reporters Friday afternoon that the Russian army overestimated their ability to take Kyiv. “Frankly they overestimated their ability to take any population center,” the official said. “And they clearly underestimated the Ukrainian resistance.”
My message to the people of Ukraine is the message I delivered today to the Ukrainian Foreign Minister and Defense Minister: We stand with you.
Also on Friday, the Russian Ministry of Defense released the number of casualties among Russian forces so far in the month-long war in Ukraine offering, predictably, a far smaller accounting of its battlefield losses than Western powers and Kyiv have estimated. While NATO released their own and far more accurate estimate of 7,000 – 15,000 Russian troop casualties, the Russian Ministry–in a rare public acknowledgment of any losses–said the total was 1300.
Putin's war is not about Ukraine, not directly. His strategic goals are to weaken the Western alliance and NATO specifically. Trump was doing that for him, every day, for years.
