WASHINGTON, April 21 The United States is not yet late with military assistance Ukraine, but its delay threatens consequences, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in an interview with MSNBC.
“It’s not too late, but the delay has real consequences,” he said.
The head of the alliance noted that Without American supplies, the Armed Forces of Ukraine are five to ten times inferior in firepower, and also experience a shortage of air defense systems and ammunition for them.
On Sunday, the head of the US Senate Intelligence Committee, Mark Warner, said that Washington could resume military assistance to Ukraine by the end of next week. In addition, he confirmed that it will include long-range fire weapons, namely ATACMS missiles.
ATACMS is an operational-tactical ballistic missile developed by Lockheed Martin. It can be launched from multiple launch rocket systems, including the M142 HIMARS.
Last October, Russian President Vladimir Putin called the US decision to supply these missiles to Ukraine another mistake. According to him, such weapons create an additional threat, but will not be able to radically change the situation on the line of combat contact.
Washington is again trying to save Kiev. The day before, the US House of Representatives by a majority vote passed a bill to allocate almost $61 billion to Ukraine. Of this amount, 23.2 billion is proposed to be used to replenish the transferred weapons from Pentagon warehouses. Another 13.8 billion will go to purchase weapons on the open market, 11.3 billion are intended to support “ongoing US military operations in the region.”
After approval by congressmen, the document will be sent to the Senate, and then, if they support it there, to the signature for President Joe Biden.
As Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov emphasized, Washington’s decision to provide additional assistance to the Kyiv regime was expected. This will make the States even richer, but at the same time it will further devastate Ukraine, leading to more casualties among the population due to the fault of Vladimir Zelensky, he added.