The first shipments of the new tranche of US military aid for Ukraine have already arrived at the country's borders to be handed over to the Ukrainian army, the Pentagon said on Monday.
“Four flights arrived in the region from the United States yesterday, with various equipment,” said a senior US Department of Defense official who requested anonymity.
A fifth flight is expected to arrive in the next 24 hours, "which will make five flights in as many days" since the new tranche of $800 million in military aid to Ukraine was announced by President Joe Biden on Wednesday. he pointed out.
Ukrainian military training
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the first shipment arrived 48 hours after the executive order authorizing the arms shipments was signed, an "unprecedented" speed.
The spokesperson specified that soldiers deployed on the eastern flank of NATO since the beginning of the Russian invasion will begin "in the coming days" to train Ukrainian soldiers in the handling of M777 Howitzer guns, artillery pieces of the latest generation that the United States has decided to hand over to the Ukrainian army for the first time.
"These trainings will be held outside Ukraine," he stressed. “A small number of Ukrainians will be trained in Howitzers and then they will be sent back to their country to train their colleagues,” he explained.
Even if their handling is not fundamentally different from that of artillery with which the Ukrainian army is familiar, these guns use 155 mm shells, used by NATO countries, while Ukraine does not yet have than Russian-made 152mm shells.