Russia hit by huge missile strike as fascist parade targeted | World | News

Ukrainian strikes have targeted the heart of Russia-controlled Donetsk, striking the “Paradise” restaurant where a celebration was underway commemorating the 10th anniversary of the controversial referendum on the creation of the so-called “Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republic”.

The strike, allegedly executed with precision by Ukrainian HIMARS artillery, demolished the “Paradise” restaurant, which reportedly housed Russian soldiers.

While there have been no official reports of casualties yet, the strike underscores the intensity of the conflict in the region. This strike comes amid a backdrop of increasing support from the United States for Ukraine.

On Friday, the US announced a substantial £319m military aid package for Ukraine, aimed at bolstering its defences against Russian advances, particularly in the northeast Kharkiv region.

The aid package includes an array of sophisticated weaponry, including High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), munitions for Patriot and National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems, artillery, anti-aircraft and anti-tank munitions, as well as armoured vehicles and patrol boats.

Notably, the State Department also approved an emergency sale of HIMARS to Ukraine, worth an estimated £24m, to further support Ukraine‘s defence capabilities.

The White House has emphasised that this aid is crucial in helping Ukraine resist the Russian onslaught, particularly in key strategic areas like Kharkiv.

The US has now provided about £40.4bn in military assistance to Ukraine since Russia‘s illegal invasion in February 2022.

Almost immediately after President Joe Biden signed the foreign aid package, the Pentagon announced it was sending nearly £1bn in weapons through that drawdown authority. And just days later the Biden administration announced another billion-pound package funded through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which pays for longer-term contracts with the defence industry and means that the weapons could take many months or years to arrive.

Russia has sought to exploit Ukraine’s shortages of ammunition and manpower as the flow of Western supplies since the outbreak of the war petered out while Congress struggled to pass the bill. Moscow has assembled large troop concentrations in the east as well as in the north and has been gaining an edge on the battlefield, Zelensky said.

Officials did not say if the latest package includes more of the long-range ballistic missiles — known as the Army Tactical Missile System — that Ukraine has repeatedly requested.

The US secretly sent a number of the missiles to Ukraine for the first time this spring and the White House has said it would send more. In one case, Ukraine used them to bomb a Russian military airfield in Crimea.

The new missiles give Ukraine nearly double the striking distance — up to 300 kilometres (190 miles) — than it had with the mid-range version of the weapon that it received from the US in October.