State Department OKs $322 million in proposed weapons sales to Ukraine

The State Division mentioned Wednesday that it has accepted $322 million in proposed weapons gross sales to Ukraine to boost its air protection capabilities and supply armored fight autos, coming because the nation works to fend off escalating Russian assaults.

The potential gross sales, which the division mentioned had been notified to Congress, embrace $150 million for the provision, upkeep, restore and overhaul of U.S. armored autos, and $172 million for surface-to-air missile techniques.

The approvals come weeks after Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth directed a pause on different weapons shipments to Ukraine to permit the Pentagon to evaluate its weapons stockpiles, in a transfer that caught the White Home without warning. President Donald Trump then made an abrupt change in posture, pledging publicly earlier this month to proceed to ship weapons to Ukraine.

“We’ve to,” Trump mentioned. “They’ve to have the ability to defend themselves. They’re getting hit very laborious now. We’re going to ship some extra weapons — defensive weapons primarily.”

Trump not too long ago endorsed a plan to have European allies purchase U.S. navy gear that may then be transferred to Ukraine. It was not instantly clear how the newest proposed gross sales associated to that association.

Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the U.S. has offered greater than $67 billion in weapons and safety help to Kyiv.

Since Trump got here again into workplace, his administration has gone forwards and backwards about offering extra navy help to Ukraine, with political stress to cease U.S. funding of international wars coming from the isolationists contained in the Trump administration and on Capitol Hill.

Over the course of the warfare, the U.S. has routinely pressed for allies to offer air protection techniques to Ukraine. However many are reluctant to surrender the high-tech techniques, notably nations in Jap Europe that additionally really feel threatened by Russia.