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On April 20, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg arrived in Kiev, where he took part in a ceremony in memory of fallen Ukrainian soldiers. The trip of the Secretary General to Ukraine was not reported in advance. He visited the country for the first time since the start of the Russian military operations in Ukraine. The visit takes place on the eve of the 11th meeting of the NATO contact group on Ukraine, which will take place on April 21 at the US Ramstein air base in Germany. The meeting will be chaired by US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the US Armed Forces, General Mark Milli. They will discuss the situation in Ukraine and new military supplies with their colleagues from 50 countries. In its turn, Washington did not wait for its partners and on April 19, Joe Biden ordered allocation of a new package of military assistance to Kiev. The 36th package since 2021 will cost the US $ 325 million. The Pentagon clarified that ammunition for HIMARS, 155-mm and 105-mm artillery shells, shells for TOW anti-tank missile systems, Swedish-made AT4 anti-tank rocket grenades, anti-tank mines, high-precision aviation ammunition, more than 9 million rounds of small arms, four logistics vehicles etc will be allocated from the reserves of the US Defense Ministry. According to The Hill, the United States has already spent $75.5 billion on assistance to Ukraine from January 2022 to January 2023. This includes $29.3 billion was for military aid, $45 billion aimed “to ensure the general security of Ukraine, restore its economy, energy security and to overcome the humanitarian crisis” and $1.9 billion for humanitarian assistance to refugees. In February, Jens Stoltenberg estimated that in 2022, Western countries provided Ukraine with military, financial and humanitarian assistance worth $ 120 billion. Meanwhile, Western military equipment is arriving to the war-torn country. On April 19, the Minister of Defense of Ukraine announced that Ukraine had received the second of the four IRIS-T air defense systems promised to Kiev by Germany. In its turn, the Bundeswehr reported that the first Patriot air defense system had arrived in Ukraine. The United States promised to deliver Patriot air defense systems to Ukraine in December 2022. Berlin joined this decision in early January and promised to deliver one system. Later, a similar statement was made by the Netherlands. The media wrote that Ukraine had already received one of the promised Patriot systems on March 10 but it had not reportedly yet been put into operation at that time. Despite all the foreign financial and military support, including direct participation in fighting on the battlefields, Ukrainian forces have still not achieved significant victories, and Kiev’s demands are only growing.
