Ukraine thanks US for new military aid as it announces assassination of "traitor"

Kyiv, Ukraine - The US will provide Ukraine with $350 million in new military aid to defend itself in the war against Russia, it announced on Monday.

© ARIS MESSINIS / AFP The US and the EU will provide Ukraine with more military aid to defend itself in the war against Russia ARIS MESSINIS / AFP

The package mainly includes ammunition, the Department of Defense said. Equipment for mine clearance, fuel tankers, and thermal imaging systems are also to be delivered.

Since the beginning of the war, US military aid has totaled well over $30 billion.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has welcomed the aid, as well as a similar package announced by the European Union, which includes one million artillery shells.

"Rapid deliveries and also the production of ammunition is foreseen," Zelensky said in his daily video message on Monday evening. "This is a strategic step."

He added: "This strengthens the conviction that we are united, that the movement towards victory over the terrorist state cannot be stopped."

Ukraine claims responsibility for assassination of "traitor"

© REUTERS Ukraine's military intelligence claimed responsibility on Monday for the murder of what it said was a "traitor" in Russian-occupied Kherson. REUTERS

The news came as Ukraine's military intelligence claimed responsibility on Monday for the murder of what it said was a "traitor" in a Russian-occupied area of the country.

"The organizer of torture chambers in the Kherson region, Serhiy Moskalenko, was recently liquidated in the temporarily occupied territory," the intelligence service announced on Monday.

Moskalenko cooperated with the Russian occupiers and was the head of a prison for those awaiting trial in the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson, according to a statement from the service. He was killed on Friday.

"Every war criminal awaits his just punishment," the authorities said. Media reports said a car bomb in the southern Ukrainian town of Skadovsk on Sunday killed him.