- China moves to limit exports of key metal used in electric vehicle production Axios
- China announces export restrictions on graphite, an essential material in EV battery production TechSpot
- China To Bar Graphite Exports | Business News Today | News9 NEWS9 Live
- South Korea seeks African graphite amidst China’s export controls Business Insider Africa
- Lomiko Metals Reflects on China’s Move to Limit Graphite Exports and Announces Corporate Update, and Annual and Special Meeting of Shareholders on December 20th, 2023 Business Wire
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Tag Archives: Exports
China restricts critical metal exports following Western semiconductor curbs in latest trade war – South China Morning Post
- China restricts critical metal exports following Western semiconductor curbs in latest trade war South China Morning Post
- China Hits US Defence Industry, Export Controls Tagret Metals Key To Advanced Radars On Jets & More CRUX
- China says U.S. and Europe were told in advance about export curbs on chipmaking metals AOL
- Is China’s export control a precise counterattack against US, Japan and the Netherlands?: Global Times editorial Global Times
- TSMC anticipates minimal impact from China’s export controls on Rare Metals gizmochina
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Netherlands and Japan join US in restricting chip exports to China
Japan and the Netherlands will restrict exports of chip manufacturing tools to China after reaching a deal with the US designed to make it harder for the Chinese military to develop advanced weapons.
Several people familiar with the trilateral agreement said the countries reached an agreement on Friday after a final round of high-level talks at the White House. The accord comes three months after Washington imposed unilateral export controls that barred US companies from selling advanced chipmaking equipment to Chinese groups.
The White House declined to comment. But the deal marks a significant milestone in US efforts to work with allies to hinder Chinese efforts to develop its semiconductor industry.
Joe Biden’s administration has been negotiating with the countries for two years but faced resistance because they were worried about the effect on their chipmaking tool companies, particularly ASML in the Netherlands and Tokyo Electron and Nikon in Japan.
In October, the US announced sweeping unilateral export controls that were designed to complicate Chinese efforts to obtain, or develop, advanced semiconductors for use in supercomputers and other military-related applications, such as artificial intelligence, nuclear weapons modelling and hypersonic weapons.
The US chip manufacturing tool groups that dominate the sector — Applied Materials, Lam Research and KLA — were concerned that the October move imposed restrictions on them but not ASML and Tokyo Electron. At the time, Alan Estevez, the top commerce department official for export controls, justified the move, saying it would prove to allies that the US had “skin in the game” and was willing to take tough decisions.
Estevez and Tarun Chhabra, the National Security Council official who is the driving force behind the move, stepped up efforts in recent months to convince the allies during visits to Tokyo and The Hague.
Several people said the three countries had decided not to make the details public due to the sensitive nature of the discussions. Washington wanted to give Japan and the Netherlands space to decide how to communicate the restrictions. It remains unclear what mechanisms the countries will use to impose the restrictions on their chip tool companies.
Tokyo and The Hague are also concerned about being seen to have signed up to an American policy that is specifically targeted at China.
Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte this week said that while public attention on chip tool exports had been focused on Japan, the Netherlands, US and China, the discussion was “broader than that”.
The increase in pressure on the allies in recent months came after US national security adviser Jake Sullivan in September signalled a significant change in policy. In a speech, he said the US should abandon its “sliding scale” approach of trying to stay two generations of chips ahead, and instead “maintain as large as a lead as possible”.
Rutte told the Financial Times in an interview that the Netherlands saw “eye to eye” with those who argued that western high-end chips should not be used in the weapons of some countries. He said western nations and Asian partners had to maintain the “leading edge” on chips.
He added that the debate was broader than just one Dutch company. Rutte said he was “absolutely convinced” that it was possible to get to a “solution with the many partners we are discussing with” and added that “The Hague was co-ordinating with everybody”.
In a statement, ASML said it understood “that steps have been made towards an agreement between governments which, to our understanding, will be focused on advanced chip manufacturing technology, including but not limited to advanced lithography tools. Before it will come into effect it has to be detailed out and implemented into legislation which will take time.”
ASML added that based on comments from government officials and its understanding of the timeline, “we do not expect these measures to have a material effect on the expectations that we have published for 2023”.
Bloomberg first reported the deal.
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Berlin Won’t Allow Exports of German Tanks to Ukraine Unless U.S. Sends Its Own
BERLIN—Germany won’t allow allies to ship German-made tanks to Ukraine to help its defense against Russia nor send its own systems unless the U.S. agrees to send American-made battle tanks, senior German officials said on Wednesday.
North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies have over 2,000 German-made Leopard tanks, considered to be among the most sophisticated in the world, according to the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies.
Several European governments have said they are ready to send German-made tanks to Ukraine, including Poland, Finland and Denmark, if they get approval from Berlin, though none has made a formal request. Britain has said it would send 14 of its Challenger 2 main battle tanks, an older equivalent to the Leopard.
“One can’t differentiate between direct exports (of German-made tanks) and exports by third countries,” a senior German official said Wednesday.
The U.S. is “not there yet” when it comes to giving Abrams tanks to Ukraine,
Colin Kahl,
the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, the No. 3 at the Pentagon, told reporters on Wednesday.
“The Abrams tank is very complicated, It’s expensive. it’s hard to train on. It has a jet engine… It is not the easiest system to maintain,” Dr. Kahl said. While he didn’t directly address Germany’s call for the U.S. to provide tanks, he said the Pentagon doesn’t want to give Ukrainians equipment “they can’t repair, they can’t sustain and they over the long term can’t afford.”
“This isn’t this isn’t about the new cycle or what’s symbolically valuable. It’s what will actually help Ukraine,” Dr. Kahl said.
The export of significant numbers of modern, Western-made tanks—something the U.S. and Ukraine’s European allies have long resisted—would mark a notable escalation in Western support for Kyiv. Berlin has long been concerned that such a step could drag the country into a direct confrontation with Russia.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Wednesday that Germany was “strategically interlocked” with friends and partners when it came to making decisions on how to support Ukraine, including with tanks.
A U.S.-made Abrams tank was prepared for military exercises in Gdynia, Poland, in December.
Photo:
mateusz slodkowski/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
By deferring to Washington, Mr. Scholz is now adding pressure on President Biden to authorize the export of Abrams tanks to Kyiv, the closest U.S. equivalent to the Leopard.
NATO Secretary-General
Jens Stoltenberg
said on Wednesday the war has entered a pivotal phase and NATO allies need to provide more heavy weaponry, particularly tanks, to Ukraine.
Mr. Stoltenberg said in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that he is looking for “more announcements of modern and heavier weapons,” following moves by the U.K., France and Canada in recent days to provide additional armored vehicles. But for Ukraine to prevail, Kyiv will require more than what has already been committed, he added.
“It means more armored vehicles,” he said. “It means battle tanks as we’ve seen U.K. and France have already announced.” It also means more advanced air-defense systems, he said.
France said recently it would ship AMX-10 wheeled armored vehicles to Ukraine. The vehicle resembles a small tank with wheels and is referred to as a “tank killer” because it fires shells that can pierce tanks’ armor and destroy them.
Key supporters of Ukraine from 50 nations, known as the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, plan to meet at the U.S.’s Ramstein Air Base in Germany on Friday to agree on a substantial new package of military aid to Kyiv.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, speaking on Wednesday in Davos, Switzerland, urged allies to provide more heavy weaponry to Ukraine.
Photo:
fabrice coffrini/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Diplomats from several NATO countries said that the issue of sending Leopards—including Germany’s approval for third-country exports to Ukraine—would be one of the key topics at the meeting.
Mr. Scholz’s government hasn’t received any such requests, several officials said, but when it does, it said it would respond swiftly. The interagency process of approval could take anything from a few days to a few weeks, officials said.
Germany, like many arms-making countries, requires buyers to seek its governmental approval before exporting its military equipment to a third nation.
Some European diplomats had hoped that Germany would signal at the Friday meeting that it would permit allies to send German-made Leopard tanks to Ukraine. However a senior European official said that Germany was unlikely to make a decision on Friday and that it would likely take longer.
There are two main types of German main battle tanks: Leopard 1, designed in the 1960s, and the much-improved model Leopard 2. Germany itself has only about 15 Leopard 2 tanks it could ship to Ukraine at a short notice, officials said.
Mr. Scholz’s government is divided on the issue: his coalition partners, the Green Party and the Free Democrats favor sending tanks to Ukraine, while many in the chancellor’s left-leaning Social Democrats—including himself—have long been reluctant, especially as long as the U.S. refuses to send its own Abrams tanks.
In April, Mr. Scholz suggested sending any Western tanks to Ukraine would increase the risk of a nuclear war between NATO and Russia.
His concerns have since subsided, two aides said, also because a broad, global group of countries including allies to President
Vladimir Putin
such as
Xi Jinping
of China, condemned the threats of using nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
Yet Mr. Scholz remains cautious. Asked on Wednesday why he was hesitating to send Leopard tanks to Kyiv, Mr. Scholz told the World Economic Forum that he was concerned about the Ukraine conflict becoming a global conflagration.
“The Ukrainians can rely on our support in their courageous fight but it is also clear that we want to avoid this becoming a war between Russia and NATO,” Mr. Scholz said.
—Daniel Michaels, Laurence Norman andNancy Youssef contributed to this article.
Write to Bojan Pancevski at bojan.pancevski@wsj.com
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China’s exports slump less than expected in December
Cargo ships dock at the container terminal in Lianyungang Port, East China’s Jiangsu province, Dec 7, 2022.
CFOTO | Future Publishing | Getty Images
BEIJING — China’s exports and imports fell less than expected in December, the customs administration said Friday.
The milder slump meant trade still grew for all of 2022.
China’s exports fell by 9.9% in December from a year ago in U.S.-dollar terms, slightly better than the 10% decline forecast by a Reuters’ poll.
China’s imports fell by 7.5% year-on-year in December in U.S.-dollar terms, also better than the 9.8% decline predicted by Reuters.
Strong exports bolstered China’s economy in the last two years. But economists anticipate a slowdown in demand from the U.S. and Europe.
Already, China’s exports started to fall year-on-year in October — for the first time since May 2020, according to Wind Information.
For all of 2022, China’s exports grew by 7.7% and imports by 1.1%, the customs agency said.
Cross-border e-commerce between China and other countries grew by 9.8% in 2022 from a year ago to 2.11 trillion yuan ($301.42 billion), according to official figures. Such direct-to-consumer exports rose by 11.7% year-on-year.
However, that marked a slowdown from 2021, when China’s cross-border e-commerce rose by 15% to 1.98 trillion yuan ($311.5 billion), and exports surged by 24.5%.
China’s imports from the EU and the U.S. fell in 2022, while those from ASEAN grew slightly.
Russia’s gas production, exports shrink from sanctions pressure: report
Former State Department official Christian Whiton discusses if parts of Europe are losing interest in the Russia-Ukraine conflict and how long it could last on ‘Varney & Co.’
Russia’s natural-gas production will fall by 12% this year and its exports will decline by about a quarter, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal, a sign that intentional pressure on the country from sanctions on oil is taking a toll.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak reportedly told Russia’s state news agency, TASS, that the drop in gas production compared with last year was largely due to the closure of export infrastructure.
Most of Russia’s natural-gas exports have been via pipelines, primarily to Europe.
PUTIN CLAIMS RUSSIA IS READY TO NEGOTIATE; UKRAINE ACCUSES KREMLIN OF TRYING TO AVOID RESPONSIBILITY
Russian President Vladimir Putin (Mikhail Metzel, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP / AP Newsroom)
Russia’s energy exports have faced mounting pressure from international sanctions and efforts by Europe to limit purchases paid to Russia for oil and gas, all in an effort to deplete the Kremlin’s war chest in its attacks on Ukraine.
Novak said separately on Friday that Russia could cut oil output in response to the Western price caps instituted earlier this month, reducing its oil production by 500,000 to 700,000 barrels a day—which he said was a 5% to 7% reduction in capacity—by early next year.
Russian officials have downplayed the impact of the price ceilings and other sanctions on Russia’s oil-and-gas sector, the lifeblood of the country’s economy. (Yuri Kochetkov/Pool Photo via AP / AP Newsroom)
RUSSIA LAUNCHES MISSILES ON UKRAINIAN TOWNS ON CHRISTMAS, CLAIMS UKRAINE MILITARY
The European Union and the U.K. have also banned seaborne shipments of Russian crude.
Russian officials have downplayed the impact of the price ceilings and other sanctions on Russia’s oil-and-gas sector, the lifeblood of the country’s economy.
Since Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in February, Russian authorities have stopped publishing data on trade statistics, including for oil and gas production, in an effort to protect the economy and domestic companies from further sanctions.
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Without those numbers, independent verification of Moscow’s statements that it has been able to sanctions-proof its economy is complicated, according to WSJ.
Live news: Turkey’s economic growth cools as global slowdown hits exports
Klarna said it had made “huge progress” towards profitability even as the losses at the once high-flying Swedish payments group ballooned in the third quarter.
“Klarna has made huge progress on our path to profitability, which we expect to hit on a monthly basis in the second half of 2023,” said chief executive Sebastian Siemiatkowski.
The payments group on Wednesday reported a net loss of SKr2.1bn ($199mn) for the latest three-month period compared with a loss of SKr1.1bn a year earlier.
The group, however, trimmed its losses by more than 40 per cent compared with the second quarter of 2022, which it said reflected its cost-savings efforts, such as cutting 10 per cent of its staff in May.
Total net operating income rose 18 per cent year on year to Skr4bn, with particularly strong growth in the UK and US.
Klarna’s valuation slumped from $46bn in June to $7bn following an $800mn funding round in July with investors including Sequoia and Mubadala, the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund.
The company, at its half-year results in August, said it would look at tightening lending, especially to new customers, to stem losses.
Klarna has been one of the pioneers in the buy now, pay later sector, which allows consumers to defer or divide payments into instalments.
While the products are highly popular among younger users, a combination of worsening economic conditions, growing scrutiny from regulators including in the UK and competition from lenders and big tech companies pose a challenge to their business model.
China’s Exports Drop Sharply as Global Economy Slows
SINGAPORE—China’s exports to the rest of the world shrank unexpectedly in October, a sign that global trade is in sharp retreat as consumers and businesses cut back spending in response to central banks’ aggressive moves to tame inflation.
The slide in exports from the world’s factory floor adds to the gloom surrounding the global economy as leaders from the Group of 20 advanced and developing countries prepare to gather in Indonesia next week.
A buoyant U.S. labor market is showing signs of cooling as the Federal Reserve jacks up interest rates to tame high inflation. Many economists expect a recession in the U.S. within the next 12 months.
Europe is bracing for a difficult winter after Russia decided to throttle energy supplies in response to sanctions over the war in Ukraine. The European Central Bank raised interest rates by three-quarters of a percentage point for the second time in a row last month, but signaled mounting concerns about economic growth, prompting speculation among investors that it may soon dial back the pace of rate increases.
For China, the world’s second-largest economy, the sharp pullback in demand for its goods abroad removes a key prop for growth at a time when its economy is pressured by the government’s zero-tolerance approach to Covid-19 and a severe real-estate slump.
“It’s almost like it doesn’t have a leg to stand on,” said Steve Cochrane, chief economist for Asia Pacific at Moody’s Analytics in Singapore.
Chinese health officials said Saturday that China would stick to its tough Covid-prevention strategy, dashing hopes that had built up in recent days for an easing of strict pandemic measures following a closely watched Communist Party congress last month.
With growth slowing in the U.S., Europe and China, economists are downbeat about the global economy’s prospects this year and next. The International Monetary Fund warned last month that “the worst is yet to come,” saying it expects global gross domestic product to expand 3.2% this year, before slowing to 2.7% in 2023.
The China export slowdown “is a worrying sign for global growth,” said Duncan Wrigley, chief China economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics in London.
Exports from China declined 0.3% last month compared with a year earlier, China’s General Administration of Customs said Monday, the weakest pace of growth since May 2020, when trade was hobbled by countries’ early efforts to contain a worsening global pandemic. That was well below the expectations of economists polled by The Wall Street Journal, who had expected exports to increase 4% year over year.
Monday’s data showed exports to the U.S. fell 13% on the year in October, the third month of decline, while sales to the European Union fell 9%.
The data showed big falls in exports of products including home appliances and medical supplies, and weakening growth in exports of mobile phones and automobiles.
Other bellwether exporters in Asia, such as South Korea and Taiwan, have also reported faltering overseas sales, pointing to a broad slowdown in trade as the global economy loses momentum.
South Korea’s trade ministry said Nov. 1 that exports fell 5.7% in October compared with a year earlier, led by sinking exports of memory chips, petrochemicals and computers.
The cost of shipping containers full of goods around the world has fallen in recent months, as consumers retrench following a splurge on gadgets and home improvements while stuck at home during the depths of the pandemic. Prices for moving goods from Asia to the U.S. West Coast last week were 87% lower than the same time last year, according to data from online freight marketplace Freightos. Ocean carriers are canceling dozens of sailings on the world’s busiest routes during what is normally peak season.
The data showed weakening growth in Chinese exports of mobile phones and automobiles.
Photo:
Cfoto/Zuma Press
The decline in Chinese exports in October followed several months of slowing growth. Exports in September rose at an annual 5.7% rate, down from the double-digit pace Chinese exports posted around the middle of the year.
China’s imports from the rest of the world dropped 0.7% in October from a year earlier, underscoring weak domestic spending in China’s economy.
That was also weaker than the flat import performance expected by economists, which meant China’s trade surplus widened in October to $85.15 billion, from $84.7 billion in September.
Zichun Huang, an economist at Capital Economics, said in a note to clients Monday that he expects Chinese exports to fall further in the months ahead as the global economy slides closer to recession.
Weakening exports aren’t the only headwind facing the world’s second-largest economy.
Lockdowns have hurt economic activity throughout the year, and the threat of further measures to snuff out even the tiniest Covid-19 outbreaks means consumers are reluctant to spend and businesses hesitant to invest, compounding the drag from a deflating property bubble.
Economists say China is poised to fall well short of officials’ earlier goal of expanding 5.5% this year, and will likely record its worst 12 months for growth—aside from the first year of the pandemic—in decades.
Xiao Xiao in Beijing contributed to this article.
Write to Jason Douglas at jason.douglas@wsj.com
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China’s exports shrink unexpectedly in October from COVID curbs, rising inflation and interest rates
China’s exports and imports unexpectedly contracted in October, the first simultaneous slump since May 2020, as surging inflation and rising interest rates hammered global demand while new COVID-19 curbs at home disrupted output and consumption.
The bleak October trade figures highlight the challenge for policymakers in China as exports had been one of the few bright spots for the struggling economy .
Outbound shipments in October shrank 0.3% from a year earlier, a sharp turnaround from a 5.7% gain in September, official data showed on Monday, and well below analysts’ expectations for a 4.3% increase. It was the worst performance since May 2020.
The data suggests demand remains frail overall, heaping more pressure on the country’s manufacturing sector and threatening any meaningful economic revival in the face of persistent COVID-19 curbs, protracted property weakness and global recession risks.
Chinese exporters weren’t even able to capitalize on a further weakening in the yuan currency and the key year-end shopping season, underlining the broadening strains for consumers and businesses worldwide.
“The weak export growth likely reflects both poor external demand as well as the supply disruptions due to COVID outbreaks,” said Zhiwei Zhang, chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management, citing COVID disruptions at the Foxconn factory, a major Apple supplier, in Zhengzhou as one example.
Apple
(AAPL) said it expects lower-than-anticipated shipments of high-end iPhone 14 models following a key production cut at a virus-blighted plant in China.
“Looking forward, we think exports will fall further over the coming quarters. The shift in global consumption patterns that pushed up demand for consumer goods during the pandemic will probably continue to unwind,” said Zichun Huang, economist at Capital Economics.
“We think that aggressive financial tightening and the drag on real incomes from high inflation will push the global economy into a recession next year.”
Almost three years into the pandemic, China has stuck to a strict COVID-19 containment policy that has exacted a heavy economic toll and caused widespread frustration and fatigue.
Feeble October factory and trade figures suggested the world’s second-biggest economy is struggling to get out of the mire in the last quarter of 2022, after it reported a faster-than-anticipated rebound in the third quarter.
Chinese policymakers pledged last week to prioritize economic growth and press on with reforms, easing fears that ideology could take precedence as President Xi Jinping began a new leadership term and disruptive lockdowns continued with no clear exit strategy in sight.
Tepid domestic demand, weighed down by fresh COVID curbs and lockdowns in October as well as the cooling property market, hurt imports too.
Inbound shipments declined 0.7% from a 0.3% gain in September, below a forecast 0.1% increase — the weakest outcome since August 2020.
China’s imports of soybeans fell and coal imports slipped, as the strict pandemic measures and a property slump disrupted domestic output.
The overall trade figures resulted in a slightly wider trade surplus of $85.15 billion, compared with $84.74 billion in September, missing a forecast of $95.95 billion.
Russia Resumes Blockade of Ukraine’s Grain Exports, Reigniting Concerns Over Food Crisis
Ukraine’s military says Russia is massing troops on the right bank of the Dnieper River as both sides appear poised for what could be a key battle for Kherson in Ukraine’s south, while Russian officials claim all civilians were evacuated from the city.
The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said on October 28 that Moscow has sent in up to 1,000 recently mobilized soldiers to make up for personnel losses suffered at the hands of an ongoing Ukrainian counteroffensive in Kherson region.
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“The command of the Russian occupying forces, in order to avoid panic among the personnel, is trying by all means to hide the real losses of servicemen…. There is a strengthening of the enemy group on the right bank of the temporarily occupied territory of the Kherson region with mobilized servicemen numbering up to 1,000 people,” the General Staff said in a statement.
Ukraine has pushed ahead with an offensive to reclaim the Kherson region and its capital of the same name, which Russian forces captured during the first days of the war.
Ukrainian forces were surrounding Kherson from the west and attacking Russia’s foothold on the right bank of the Dnieper River.
However, tough terrain and bad weather held up the Ukrainian Army’s main advance in Kherson, officials said.
Kherson, one of four partially occupied provinces that Russia proclaimed to have seized last month, controls the only land route to the Crimean Peninsula that Russia illegally annexed in 2014 and the mouth of the Dnieper that bisects Ukraine.
Sergei Aksyonov, the Russia-installed governor of Crimea, said on October 28 that President Vladimir Putin’s first deputy chief of staff, Sergei Kiriyenko, has visited Kherson.
Kiriyenko, one of the most powerful officials in the Kremlin, visited the ferry port that is evacuating people from the right bank of the Dnieper ahead of the expected Ukrainian offensive, Aksyonov said.
“The work on organizing the departure of residents has been completed,” he said.
Aksyonov’s statement came a day after Russia-appointed officials in Kherson said that more than 70,000 people had left the city, including members of the Moscow-installed regional administration.
The Ukrainian military said on October 28 that forces had killed 44 Russian soldiers in the past 24 hours, adding that its forces had destroyed an ammunition depot and a hangar with equipment.
The claim could not be independently verified.
However, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said 23 of his soldiers were killed and another 58 wounded in a Ukrainian artillery attack this week in Kherson. The comments were unusual as pro-Moscow forces have rarely admitted to major battlefield losses.
WATCH: A local official told Russian conscripts “You are not cannon fodder” in a video published online recently. The men responded by angrily shouting that, actually, that’s exactly what they are. The incident, in the Ardatovsky district some 360 kilometers east of Moscow, followed a stream of videos in which Russian conscripts complain of old equipment and poor training.
In the eastern region of Donetsk, Russian shelling killed four local residents, Pavlo Kyrylenko, the head of the region’s military administration, said on October 28.
Russian air strikes, drone attacks, and shelling of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure were forcing electricity cuts in the capital, Kyiv, and other places, officials said.
Air force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat told a briefing on October 28 that Ukraine has shot down more than 300 Iranian Shahed-136 “kamikaze” drones so far. The drones have become a key weapon in Russia’s attacks on crucial Ukrainian energy infrastructure.
Iran has denied Ukrainian and Western accusations that it is supplying drones to Russia.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukrainians will not be cowed by such tactics.
“Shelling will not break us — to hear the enemy’s anthem on our land is scarier than the enemy’s rockets in our sky,” Zelenskiy said in his regular video address on October 27 as he stood outside in the dark next to the wreckage of a downed drone.
WATCH: Ukrainian troops are targeting Russian-launched drones, fighter planes, and helicopters, using Soviet-era antiaircraft systems with limited radar capabilities. They also use Western-supplied, shoulder-launched missiles like the Stinger, but factors such as the weather can have a major impact on their effectiveness.
Meanwhile, U.S. officials quoted by Reuters and the Associated Press said the United States is preparing a new $275 million package of military assistance for Ukraine to bolster its counteroffensive against Russian forces.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said there are no major new weapons in the U.S. package, which is expected to be announced as early as October 28.
Instead, the U.S. aid is largely aimed at restocking thousands of rounds of ammunition for weapons systems already there, including for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, known as HIMARS, which Ukraine has been successfully using in its counteroffensive against Russia.
White House national-security spokesperson John Kirby declined to confirm details of the package in a CNN interview, saying only that a new tranche of weaponry for Ukraine would be announced “very, very soon.”