“We cannot, under any circumstances, allow American support for Ukraine to be interrupted. Too many lives, too many children and too many people are at stake,” said Joe Biden at a government meeting in the White House. “I fully expect the Speaker of the House and the majority of Republicans in Congress to remain true to their commitment to ensure that the necessary support is provided to help Ukraine defend itself against Russian aggression and brutality.” , he added, recalling that the United States is “the indispensable nation in the world”.
Meanwhile, according to the Associated Press, the Pentagon has sent a letter to US Congressional leaders to warn that it is running out of funds to replace the weapons the United States has sent to Ukraine, stressing that it was already forced to slow down and reduce the supply of some troops. The letter calls on Congress to increase funding for Ukraine after lawmakers averted a government shutdown by passing a short-term funding bill that halted all support to Ukraine in the war against Russia.
Defense Secretary Michael McCord told House and Senate leaders that $1.6 billion remained of the $25.9 billion Congress allocated to replenish U.S. military supplies flowing to Ukraine . The weapons include millions of artillery shells, rockets and missiles critical to Ukraine’s counteroffensive to retake territory captured by Russia during the war.
In addition, the United States still has about $5.4 billion to deliver weapons and equipment from its stockpiles. The United States would have already exhausted these funds if the Pentagon had not realized earlier this year that it had overvalued the equipment it had already delivered, freeing up about $6.2 billion. Some of these have been sent in the last few months.
McCord said the United States had fully exhausted Kiev’s long-term funding through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which provides money to sign contracts for future arms sales. “We have already been forced to slow the replenishment of our force to protect ourselves from an uncertain funding future,” McCord said in the letter.
“If we fail to increase our military services in a timely manner, this could impact the readiness of our armed forces.”
The official added that without additional funding, the United States must now delay or reduce air defense weapons, ammunition, drones, and demolition and breakthrough equipment, which are “critical and urgent now as Russia prepares to conduct a ‘winter offensive.’
Kiev, “Russian night raids on the Dnipropetrovsk region”
Russian forces attacked Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region last night, shooting down 13 drones and one cruise missile, but the attacks hit the city of Pavlograd. Chairman of the Dnepropetrovsk Regional Council Nikolai Lukashuk said this on Telegram, adding that artillery shells also caused damage in the Nikopol district.
“Our air force shot down a missile and 13 enemy drones. Unfortunately, arrivals were registered on the territory of a Pavlograd company. the other in a garage,” the officer wrote. “During the night the enemy shelled the Myrivsk community in the Nikopol district with artillery. Two private houses and an outbuilding were damaged,” he added, emphasizing that there were no injuries in the attacks.
The first underground school in Ukraine in Kharkiv
The eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv will build the country’s first fully underground school to protect students from Russia’s frequent bomb and missile attacks. This was announced by the city’s mayor, as the Guardian reports.
“Such accommodation will allow thousands of Kharkiv children to personally and safely continue their education even during the missile threat,” Mayor Ihor Terekhov wrote on Telegram.
While many schools in frontline regions were forced to continue online classes during the war, Kharkiv organized around 60 classes in its metro stations before the start of the school year, which began on September 1, creating spaces for more than 1,000 children for learning.
Terekhov said the new school “will comply with the most modern legal requirements for protective facilities. Such accommodation will allow thousands of Kharkiv children to personally and safely continue their education even during the missile threat.”
It is not yet clear how large the school will be or when it will open. However, the mayor said that funding for schools would not be cut “by a single hryvnia” this year or next, adding that his city is “the smartest in Ukraine.”
Kharkiv, the country’s second-largest city, had a population of more than 1.4 million before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Some of its parts are less than 35 km from the Russian border.
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