arriving within the hour apparently. including long range artillery howitzer. it s clearly too late for mariupol, is it too late too little? any resupply of that nature is valuable. the fight i think the ukrainians now have to focus on is donbas region. you see that russians are massing both in the northeast and the southern part of ukraine for that, what russians consider big assault into that territory that putin has long considered part of mother russia. if the ukrainians can use and certainly long range artillery, 155 howitzer is valuable. not enough of them. hip helicopters, the mi-17s for
the u.s. says its first shipment of heavy weapons has arrived in the country ahead of a renewed russian offensive. 18 howitzer cannons. so, u.s. military officials are working the phones daily with allies to try to speed up shipments of weapons, ammunitions to ukraine. alex zients reporting in from the white house. the first round of that more sophisticated and heavy duty military assistance from the yates to ukraine has started to arrive in the rei don t know. that s according to a white house official. the plans were to send that equipment into the region and the ukrainians would pick up the military assistance at the border and transfer it into the country themselves. it is unclear at this moment whether that transfer has started. while the pentagon would not detail a list of what this first
the russian military laid down this ultimatum in the morning demanding ukrainians abandon their weapons if they want to live. russian defense ministry claiming it shot down a military transport plane neuro december sa, still no confirmation. despite that claim, the u.s. says the first shipments of heavy weapons is in country, including howitzer cannons and artillery rounds. the u.s. military working the phones along with the pentagon to try and get along lies to speed up shipments of weapons and ammunition to ukraine. more details from cnn s arlette saenz reporting in from the white house. reporter: the first round of that more sophisticated and heavy-duty military assistance from the united states to ukraine has started to arrive in the region. that s according to a white house official. the plans were to send that
security assistance the biden administration is extending to ukraine. this is much more sophisticated, heavy duty weaponry the u.s. is spending for ukraine. an official earlier in the week has said that originally these shipments would be headed into the region and the ukrainians would be transferring them into ukraine. who ill the pentagon has not released a manifest of what was released in this first shipment. the overall $800 million package includes helicopters, howitzer cannons as well as more switchblade drones and radars that are cape am of detecting incoming fire and pinpointing their exact origin. now, in the past, there have been some biden administration officials who were hesitant to send some of this heavy duty weaponry into ukraine worrying about what kind of risk of escalation the russians might view this as, but analyzing the situation on the ground as the
we know they gave the howitzer cannons essential for long range targets. mi-17 helicopters something that president zelenskyy pressured president biden to give. that will be good for transporting things across the battlefield. as well as the switchblade drones for long range targets. definitely essential equipment that president zelenskyy was advocating for for quite some time for the u.s. to send. john kirby explained more of the thinking behind the new shipment here when he was talking to cnn s jake tapper on thursday. take a listen. we think the terrain there, which is likes kansas, flat, open, will lend itself for the russians to use mechanized forces in columns, artillery, short range and long range fires. those are the capabilities you want to make sure the ukrainians have as well.