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Zelenskyy visits Pennsylvania ammunition plant, asks for more weapons

SCRANTON, Pennsylvania: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited a Pennsylvania ammunition factory on September 21 to thank the workers and said he wanted more of the most critically needed munitions for his country against Russian ground forces.

The Scranton plant is one of the few facilities in the country that manufactures 155 mm artillery shells. Production has increased over the past year, and Ukraine has already received more than three million of them from the U.S.

Zelenskyy expressed his gratitude to all the employees at the plant.

Zelenskyy will speak at the U.N. General Assembly annual gathering in New York this week and travel to Washington for talks with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, seeking more support for Ukraine.

The area around the ammunition plant was sealed off, with municipal garbage trucks positioned across several roadblocks and a very heavy police presence.

As Zelenskyy’s large motorcade made its way to the ammunition plant in the afternoon, a small contingent of supporters waving Ukrainian flags assembled nearby to show their appreciation for his visit.

She said many of her friends’ parents have worked in the ammunition plant, and she called Zelenskyy’s visit “a wonderful thing.”

Laryssa Salak, 60, whose parents also immigrated from Ukraine, said it upsets her that funding for Ukraine’s defense has divided Americans and that even some of her friends oppose the support, saying the money should go to help Americans instead.

The 155 mm rounds are just one of the scores of ammunition, missile, air defense, and advanced weapons systems the U.S. has provided Ukraine. The U.S. is the largest donor to Ukraine, providing more than US$56 billion of the more than $106 billion NATO and partner countries have collected to aid in its defense.

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