Russia Intensifies Strikes on Ukraine as U.S. Pledges $250 Million More for Kyiv Amid Deepening War

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has announced more U.S. aid for Ukraine just days after the country was hit by one of the deadliest airstrikes since Russia's invasion in early 2022. On Tuesday, a pair of Russian missiles struck a military academy and hospital in the central Ukrainian city of Poltava, killing at least 51 people and injuring more than 270. "The sense … is that the U.S. is giving Ukraine enough so that it doesn't lose, but not enough so that it can actually make significant and needed gains," says award-winning journalist Arwa Damon, who is in Ukraine providing medical and mental healthcare with her organization INARA, the International Network for Aid, Relief and Assistance. "This has been going on for well over two years right now, and they really want to begin to be able to see a way out."

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