Ukraine may receive a new batch of weapons from the United States within a week after the approval of the bill on military aid to Kyiv is finalized and signed by President Joe Biden. This was reported by The Washington Post.
The article says that after the approval of the bill in the USA, the Pentagon will need less than a week to send weapons to Ukrainian units. The same opinion was expressed by the head of the US Senate Intelligence Committee Mark Warner.
In an interview with CBS TV channel on Sunday, he admitted that the supply of long-range missiles ATACMS, capable of hitting targets at a distance of up to 300 kilometers, will begin within a week after the document is signed by U.S. President Joe Biden. This is expected to happen on Tuesday or Wednesday this week.
As reported by the US media, the Pentagon has prepared a large batch of military aid to Ukraine in advance, so it will take less than a week to deliver weapons and ammunition to the Ukrainian army after the appropriations for it are approved.
The US House of Representatives on April 20 approved a 60bn 800m dollars aid package for Ukraine.
According to analysts, the ATACMS long-range tactical missiles are capable of changing the balance of power on the front. Peter Dickinson, a researcher at the US think tank Atlantic Council, states that ATACMS will allow Ukraine to hit targets in all Russian-occupied Ukrainian regions. According to other analysts, ATACMS are particularly effective for striking such targets as aircraft at airfields, air defense systems, oil refineries, and logistics centers with trucks.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the AFU has a chance to seize the initiative on the front if Kyiv gets the weapons systems it needs. Speaking to NBC, Zelensky said that Ukraine currently needs long-range weapons and air defense systems.
Last October, Russian media wrote that the Ukrainian army secretly received an ATACMS model with a range of up to 165 kilometers. The Russian authorities said at the time that Ukraine had used the missile to strike the occupied part of Zaporizhzhia region.
On April 17, the Ukrainian armed forces attacked a military airfield in Dzhankoy in annexed Crimea. Russian pro-war bloggers claimed that the strike was carried out by US ATACMS missiles. There were no reports of Ukraine transferring such missiles with a longer range (300 kilometers or more), but when launched from the Kherson region, Dzhankoy falls within the range of ATACMS with a range of 165 kilometers.
