The US Agency for International Development (USAID) has announced that Washington will send an additional $5.5 billion in aid to Kiev amid Russia’s ongoing special military operation in Ukraine.,USAID added that the figure is comprised of $4.5 billion in budgetary support and $1 billion in military assistance, bringing total US fiscal aid for Ukraine to $8.5 billion since the beginning of the Russian special operation in February.,All this indicates that the US “has become the patron of Ukraine, paying for Ukrainian military, social welfare and other obligations,” investigative journalist Rick Sterling has told Sputnik.,“This is further evidence that Ukraine has become a tool of the US and NATO. The US is paying these bills because Ukraine has been used as a proxy. The aid will end abruptly when Ukrainians come to an agreement with Russia, achieve peace and stop being used as a tool of the US. The US only provides this level of aid to puppet governments,” Sterling notes.,He argued that Kiev is “absolutely not necessary” for Washington and the West, slamming “delusional warmongers” for believing that “the US ‘must’ prevail in Ukraine.”,Russia's Special Operation in UkraineMoD Warns of ‘Proportional Response’ as UK Approves Ukraine’s Use of British Arms to Attack Russia26 April, 14:11 GMT,Sterling bemoaned the fact that Ukraine, which “should be a peaceful bridge between East and West,” is instead “being used as a tool of the West with Ukrainians as pawns and cannon fodder.”,The journalist also referred to the “very ironic” situation when the US is “providing hundreds of millions of dollars to pay Ukrainian healthcare expenses while 30 million US citizens lack all healthcare insurance.”,He recalled that “hundreds of thousands of US residents go bankrupt and are impoverished every year,” by medical bills, with some of them becoming homeless.,“They are driven into poverty and debt when they get sick. Meanwhile, in this latest announcement [by the USAID], the US is sending $4 billion to pay Ukrainian government expenses including healthcare,” Sterling underscored.,Additionally, the journalist cited “several indications that not all the armament ends being used in the Ukraine but is being shipped onward to other regions” and “other conflicts”, including those in the Middle East.,“For decades the US has run secret operations where they provided weapons and funds to extremists and terrorists. If they served the overall US goal of destabilizing a US adversary, the CIA [Central Intelligence Agency] gave aid and promoted the terrorists. They did this in numerous countries. Having a flood of weapons into Ukraine makes it possible to divert some of these weapons for other targets,” he asserted.,Moscow has repeatedly warned the US and its allies against supplying weapons to Ukraine, which the Kremlin insists only motivates Kiev to fight Russia rather than search for a diplomatic solution to the conflict.,Russia's Special Operation in UkrainePentagon Admits Sending Missiles to Ukraine Capable of Hitting Russian Defensive Systems09:31 GMT,Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov for his part told reporters that Moscow has told Washington that the US providing Ukraine with arms is “not just a dangerous move, but an action that turns the corresponding convoys into legitimate targets” for the Russian armed forces.,“We cautioned about the consequences of the thoughtless transfer to Ukraine of such types of weapons as man-portable air defense systems, anti-tank missile systems, and so on,” Ryabkov added, stressing that these warnings are not perceived by the US serious signals.,On February 24, Russia launched a special operation to demilitarize and de-Nazify Ukraine following requests from the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics to protect them from Kiev’s provocations. Moscow stated that only Ukraine’s military infrastructure will be targeted with high-precision weapons.

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