Ukraine war briefing: Kyiv claims bomber shot down at 308km range after crash in Russia
www.theguardian.com
Sat, 20 Apr 2024 03:41:02 +0300
US House of Representatives moves closer to passing Ukraine aid bureaucracy delays 500m in foreign assistance channelled through UK Ministry of Defence.
What we know on day 787See all our Ukraine war coverageUkraine said it shot down a Russian Tu22M3 strategic bomber from a distance of 308km 180 miles after it took part in a longrange airstrike that killed eight people including two children in Dnipro.
I can only say the plane was hit at a distance of 308km, quite far away, said Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraines military spy agency, the GUR.An intelligence source told Reuters the plane was hit with a modified S200 Sovietera longrange surfacetoair missile system.
Unconfirmed social media footage showed a warplane with its tail on fire spiralling towards the ground.
The Russian defence ministry confirmed the crash in Russias southern Stavropol region but claimed it appeared to have been caused by a technical malfunction.
Four aircrew ejected with one dead, two rescued and another missing, the Russian regional governor said.Ukraines president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, visited the site of the strike in Dnipro and again called on Ukraines allies to rush in more air defences.
Zelenskiy said Russian missiles also struck the Black Sea port of Pivdennyi in the southern Odesa region on Friday afternoon, destroying grain storage facilities and the food inside.In the US, the House of Representatives has pushed ahead through procedural hurdles towards passing a foreign aid package that includes 61bn for Ukraine, Joanna Walters writes.
The House is expected to vote on Saturday on the legislation.
Chuck Schumer, the Democratic party leader in the Senate, has told senators to be prepared to return this weekend if the package passes the House and goes back to the Senate.
If passed by the Senate, it must be signed into law by president Joe Biden after which the US would ship arms to Ukraine right away, the White House press secretary, Karine JeanPierre, told reporters on Friday.More than half of an international 900m military fund for Ukraine run by the British Ministry of Defence has not been used because of bureaucratic delays in handing out contracts, Daniel Boffey reports.
Critics claim slow provision of weapons to the frontline by the International Fund for Ukraine, with just 404m spent and ministers admitting some of the equipment is not expected to reach Ukraine until spring next year.The fund was set up in August 2022 and was designed to be flexible and lowbureaucracy.
Delays are said by MoD officials to have been caused by a need to assess each of the huge number of defence companies that have tendered for contracts.
An MoD spokesperson said Thousands of responses have been received from industry to International Fund for Ukraine requirements, each of which have had to be individually reviewed.
We make no excuses for having made sure this was done properly and in a way that most effectively helps Ukraine.
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