US sends controversial weapons as Ukraine mourns 17 blast victims

By Stefan J. Bos

It took just seconds for a suspected Russian strike to kill more than a dozen people, including one child, at a market in the city of Kostyantynivka in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region.

A bright orange explosion at the far end of the market street changed shoppers' lives forever.

Officials said the artillery strike landed about 20 kilometers (12.5 miles) from the front line.

Since Wednesday's blast, rescue workers have struggled to carry the body bags and the injured from the scene between torched cars and fires in shops burning nearby.

The deadly attack came as America's top diplomat, Antony Blinken, arrived in Kyiv to announce more than 1 billion dollars in new military and humanitarian aid. "We will continue to stand by Ukraine's side," Blinken told reporters at a press conference with Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in Kyiv. "And today, we're announcing new assistance totaling more than $1 billion in this common effort. That includes $665.5 million in new military and civilian security assistance. In total, we committed over $43 billion in security assistance since the beginning of the Russian aggression," Blinken explained.

"Now, since I was last here almost exactly one year ago, Ukrainian forces have taken back more than 50 percent of the territory seized by Russian forces since February of 2022. In the ongoing counteroffensive, progress has accelerated in the past few weeks. This new assistance will help sustain it and build further momentum," he added.

Human suffering

Yet the fighting has caused massive human suffering, with hundreds of thousands of people reportedly being killed or injured on both sides since Russia's invasion of Ukraine began in February last year.

Russia has condemned the latest U.S. military assistance as it will equip U.S. Abrams tanks that were delivered to Ukraine with shells strong enough to pierce conventional tank armor.

They are made of depleted uranium - a by-product of uranium enrichment stripped of most radioactive material.

As U.S. Secretary of State Blinken visited Ukraine, suspected Ukrainian drone attacks were reported in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and near Moscow.

There have been calls for peace talks and pressure on Russia again to allow  Ukrainian grain exports through the Black Sea.

But neither issue has been resolved amid concerns that war may spread to neighboring nations. Romania, a NATO military alliance member state, has now confirmed that parts of a Russian drone fell on its territory, adding to anxiety in the region.