President Joe Biden pledges $1 billion in arms to Ukraine

President Joe Biden's administration has pledged another $1 billion (£828 million) in military aid to Ukraine to help its forces fight Vladimir Putin's invasion.

The US leader's office said on Monday that the Biden administration was shipping its biggest direct delivery of weapons to Ukraine yet, as Kyiv prepares for a potentially decisive counter-offensive in the south against Russia.

It plans to distribute $1bn in rockets, ammunition and other material to Ukraine from US Defence Department stockpiles.

The new arms shipment would further strengthen Ukraine as it mounts the counter-offensive, which analysts say for the first time could allow Kyiv to shape the course of the rest of the war.

Ukraine aims to push Russian troops back out of Kherson and other southern territories near the Dnipro River.

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In recent days, Russia has been moving troops and equipment in the direction of the southern port cities to stave off the Ukrainian counter-offensive.

“At every stage of this conflict, we have been focused on getting the Ukrainians what they need, depending on the evolving conditions on the battlefield,” Colin Kahl, undersecretary of defence for policy, said.

The new US aid includes additional rockets for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) as well as thousands of artillery rounds, mortar systems, Javelins and other ammunition and equipment.

Military commanders and other US officials have said the HIMARS and artillery systems have been crucial in Ukraine’s fight to block Russia from taking more ground.

While the US has already provided 16 HIMARS to Ukraine, Mr Kahl said the new package does not include additional ones.

He added: “These are not systems that we assess you need in the hundreds to have the type of effects needed.

“These are precision-guided systems for very particular types of targets and the Ukrainians are using them as such.”

He declined to say how many of the precision guided missile systems for the HIMARS were included in Monday's announcement, but said the US has provided “multiple hundreds” of them in recent weeks.

The latest announcement brings the total US security assistance committed to Ukraine by the Biden administration to more than $9 billion (£7.4 billion).

How much military aid has the UK sent to Ukraine?

To date, the UK has been one of the largest suppliers of military support to Ukraine since the Russian invasion began on February 24.

Last month the Government announced it would supply "scores of artillery guns, hundreds of drones and hundreds more anti-tank weapons to Ukraine in the coming weeks".

That latest commitment brought the UK's total military and broader regional activity funding to £2.3 billion.

Arms the UK has donated to Kyiv since the outbreak of war include anti-tank missiles, long-range multiple launch rocket systems, and artillery systems including 155mm self propelled guns.

In June, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the UK would be launching a major training operation for Ukrainian forces.

The programme is thought to have the potential to train up to 10,000 soldiers every 120 days.

For the last four months of the war, Russia has concentrated on capturing the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, where pro-Moscow separatists have controlled some territory as self-proclaimed republics for eight years.

Russian forces have made gradual headway in the region, while launching missile and rocket attacks to curtail the movements of Ukrainian fighters elsewhere.

Mr Kahl estimated that Russian forces have sustained up to 80,000 deaths and injuries in the fighting, though he did not break down the figure with an estimate of forces killed.

He said the Russian troops have managed to gain “incremental” ground in eastern Ukraine, although not in recent weeks.

“But that has come at extraordinary cost to the Russian military because of how well the Ukrainian military has performed and all the assistance that the Ukrainian military has gotten," he added.

"And I think now, conditions in the east have essentially stabilized and the focus is really shifting to the south.”

The US and its allies still are evaluating whether to supply aircraft to Ukraine, according to Mr Kahl.

He said it's “not inconceivable that western aircraft down the road could be part of the mix".

During the early parts of the war Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy launched near daily calls for warplanes, calling them essential to protecting Ukraine's skies.

The US and some other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) countries feared providing aircrafts could draw them into more direct involvement with Ukraine's war against Russia, and have so far opted against their inclusion.