He did not provide details on the number of US tanks already in the country but thanked the allies for their arms assistance. The US is considered Kyiv’s most important military supporter.

Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, US military aid to Ukraine has amounted to US$43.9 billion, according to government figures.

Most recently, weapons and equipment worth US$128 million were authorised from US military stocks.

But Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) missiles with a range of up to 300km (about 185 miles), long requested by Kyiv, were not included.

Ukraine launched a counteroffensive to retake Russian-occupied territories in June and has been making slow progress, but the attack on Russia’s prestigious Black Sea naval Fleet headquarters last week rattled Moscow.

The fleet’s commander, Viktor Sokolov, died in the attack, according to Kyiv.

“After the hit at the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, 34 officers died, including the commander of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet,” the press service of the special forces at the Ukrainian military announced on Telegram.

But the commander appeared in images distributed on Tuesday by Russia’s defence ministry.

Sokolov was pictured in military uniform attending via video link a meeting held on Tuesday and presided by Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu.

Last Friday, the Ukrainian military launched a combined attack of drones and cruise missiles on the Crimean Peninsula, which has been controlled by Russia since having been illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

Videos showed that the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in the port city of Sevastopol was hit several times. After the attack, however, Moscow spoke of only one person being missing.

Sokolov was appointed commander of the Black Sea Fleet in September 2022. According to media reports, his predecessor was removed from office after the sinking of the missile cruiser Moskva, the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, a few months after Moscow’s war against Ukraine began.

It was not immediately clear how Ukraine counted the dead and wounded in Friday’s attack. Each side has at times exaggerated enemy losses in the war and says little about its own losses.

Ukraine has stepped up its attacks in the Black Sea and on the Crimean Peninsula and started using missiles in addition to assault drones.

Kyiv has said that destroying the Russian Black Sea fleet would significantly speed up the end of the war. Earlier this month, Russia’s defence ministry said that Ukraine attacked a Black Sea naval shipyard with 10 cruise missiles.

In a possible indication of how serious the recent Ukrainian attacks on Sevastopol have been, the Russian-installed governor of the city held a meeting on Monday to work out better defence and attack warning systems for the city.

“We understand that we have moved into a new situation that requires a systemic response,” Russian agencies cited the governor, Mikhail Razvozhayev, as telling its government.

“Earlier, we and our military faced attacks from unmanned vehicles … Now everything has changed and we must be prepared for this kind of threat.”

Additional reporting by Reuters, Agence France-Presse