US approves urgent sale of weapons worth $165 million to Ukraine

Reuters news agency, citing a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs America On April 25, said the move was in response to a request from the Kiev government to buy “a variety of non-standard ammunition”, a term commonly used to refer to ammunition that does not comply with NATO standards.

According to the US Department of Defense, the above weapons may include ammunition for artillery, tanks and grenade launchers such as 152mm ammunition for the 2A36 Giatsint self-propelled howitzer, 152mm ammunition for D-20 howitzers, VOG-17 ammunition used for the AGS-17 automatic grenade launcher, 125mm HE ammunition for the T-72 tank and 152mm ammunition for the 2A65 Msta howitzer. Their exact number has not been announced by Washington.

A US State Department official said: “The requirement for daily replenishment of ammunition for Ukrainian troops to defend their country continues to increase. The stockpiles of ammunition for combat systems are dwindling. one of the reasons for the state of emergency”.

The US has not declared a state of emergency since 2019. Former President Donald Trump used this measure to sell large quantities of weapons to Arab allies to deter Iran, a move that angered many lawmakers and accused President Trump of circumventing the law to bypass the US Congress.

The Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified the US Congress of the possible sale of ammunition to Ukraine from April 24.

President Joe Biden this month announced two additional military aid packages worth $800 million to Ukraine, bringing Washington’s total military aid to Kiev since Russia launched a special military operation to more than three. billion USD.

Russia has repeatedly said that supplying weapons to Ukraine is a dangerous act, and warned that foreign aid shipments to Ukraine could become a “legitimate target” of Russian forces.

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