U.S. will send another $775 million in weapons to Ukraine

Aug. 19 (UPI) -- The United States will send another $775 million in weapons to Ukraine, including missiles, drones, and vehicles, the White House said Friday.

President Joe Biden authorized the State Department to send up to $775 million in defense materiels and training on Friday, according to the White House.

The weapons package will include 16 howitzers and ammunition for them and AGM-88 High-Speed Anti-Radiation Missiles known as HARM, senior Pentagon officials told The Hill, CNBC and Defense News.

Armored vehicles, 15 Scan Eagle reconnaissance drones are also included in the latest weapons package.

With this latest weapons assistance package, the United States will surpass $10 billion in military assistance for Ukraine. Ukraine appears to be putting the weapons to effective use.

Overnight Thursday and into Friday morning, explosions occurred again in Russian-occupied Crimea and in Russia's Belgorod Oblast. The explosions hit a Russian ammunition depot in Belgorod.

Those strikes followed an Aug. 9 attack on the Russian Saki airbase in Crimea that destroyed Russian Black Sea Fleet warplanes.

"Crimea is the sovereign territory of Ukraine," Ukraine National Security Council head Oleksiy Danilov tweeted Friday. "The issue on the agenda is the step-by-step demilitarization of this territory with its further de-occupation."

Earlier this month, a $1 billion arms package for Ukraine was announced that included more Javelin missiles and hundreds of AT4 anti-armor systems.

In May, U.S. Defense Sec. Lloyd Austin said 20 nations agreed to donate critically needed weapons to continue to enable Ukraine to defends itself from Russia's invasion and continuing attacks.