Zelensky thanks United States for intensifying military assistance

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has thanked the United States for intensifying its military assistance with the upcoming deliveries of more rocket launchers, vehicles and drones.

"Thank you President Biden for the new defence aid package for Ukraine. Critically important, powerful arms will save our soldiers' lives, speed up the liberation of our land from the Russian aggressor. I appreciate the strategic friendship between our nations. Together to victory!" Zelensky tweeted on Saturday.

The White House announced on Friday additional heavy weapons shipments to Ukraine worth about $270 million, bringing the total military assistance to the country to $8.2 billion since the start of the Biden administration.

Included in the latest package are four additional HIMARS artillery systems. Kiev has said the U.S.-supplied high-tech, long-range rocket launchers will be critical to a planned counteroffensive to retake territory captured by Russian forces.

The new U.S. package also includes 36,000 artillery shells, vehicles and up to 580 Phoenix Ghost drones.

Zelensky has said the grinding five-month-old war could be over by the end of the year - if the West sticks to its promises to keep supplying Kiev with the necessary weapons.

Russia for its part has warned the U.S. and NATO that supplying weapons to Ukraine will only prolong the war.

This week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the long-range weapons being sent to Kiev by the West have changed the dynamic of the war and this is leading Moscow to redefine its aims.

Lavrov said that to ensure the security of its own forces, the Russian military must now work to push Ukrainian forces farther from the front line, suggesting Moscow would expand the focus of its invasion beyond the east of the country.