russian oil artillery fire from over the horizon. a congressional declaration that visited ukraine this weekend also got to see how those weapons are being used. among them was democratic congresswoman elissa slotkin. she has a special connection with ukraine, as her michigan has a large ukrainian american population. but her state is also one of the places where soldiers are trained on how to use the himars system. she may have pointed to that during her visit by, giving zelenskyy a challenge going from a himars unit in michigan national guard. congresswoman elissa slotkin it s just back from kyiv. she joins us next. stay with us. man elissa slotkin it s just back from kyiv she joins us next.
as her state michigan has a large ukrainian population and it is where soldiers were trained to use the himars system, and that was a point of the visit, by giving a challenge coin. she is just back from kyiv. she joins us next: challenge coin she is just back from kyiv she joins us next:
cnn has identified nearly 20 strikes so far helped russian lines this month. and now we have nic robertson joining us live from kyiv. so nic, we heard what zelenskyy was saying there. what weapons do ukrainian officials are helping them the most right now? reporter: the himars system which is something that really got in their hands and had training on over the past couple of weeks they say is delivering a below against the russian forces that the russians hadn t either anticipated or properly prepared for which giving them a military advantage along the frontline right now. it is no surprise that president zelenskyy is going to say these weapon systems are good, that they are successful because he wants more of they wm. frontlines here are long and he only has a handful so far. the advantage of these weapons
in particular practerhaps is in name. himars is high moenlt andmobili and if you have a good and effective weapon system, of course russians will figure out where it is and target it. but the other thing that is really in play for the ukrainians right now, what is really hurting the russians, is that these are longer range weapon systems than the ukrainians previously had and they are more accurate. so when they know where russian ammunition dumps are, they have hit them in mykolaiv, in kehersn oig and donetsk regions, they can hit them more. and so this is what the ukrainians hope will stop the russians sort of supporting their frontline troops. we heard from one regional commander saying that we re
that includes 18 more howitzers on top of what the u.s. has sent in. more than 36,000 rounds of artillery ammunition, and ammunition for the himars system, approved earlier this month. four of those weapons systems, multiple launch rocket systems that can strike at a far greater range. that s about a third of the billion dollars. the other two-thirds is known as the ukraine security assistance initiative and that will go to purchase through direct contracts with weapons manufacturers more weapons for ukraine. that includes two harpoon coastal defense systems, thousands of night vision goggles, thousands of radios so that won t be as fast, but the u.s. s position is the fight in eastern ukraine is an incremental fight. russia, yes, is making gains, but there is still time to get the critical systems in. how will we find out and when will we see this? the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff said the training on that advanced himars system for the first group wrapped up today. it should