For the reason that Russian invasion started, the U.S. has dedicated greater than $2.5 billion price of weapons and different navy tools to Ukraine. In a telephone name Wednesday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President Biden pledged a further $800 million in weapons, ammunition and safety help.
CBS Information was given an unique have a look at a cargo of U.S. navy weapons sure for the battlefield.
The weapons arrive at Dover Air Power Base in Delaware in unmarked vehicles pushed from ammunition dumps positioned all around the United States. A whole lot of javelin anti-tank missiles — weapons which might be destroying Russian tanks — are then loaded aboard a cargo plane sure for the battlefield in Ukraine.
"Our purpose is to be agile and to maneuver the necessities rapidly so the oldsters on the opposite finish wouldn't have to attend for the fabric," Colonel Bary Flack, the commander of the upkeep group at Dover Air Power Base, informed CBS Information. "The hazards are it is a excessive explosive. These are javelin missiles."
The aircraft took off Wednesday afternoon and ought to be arriving in a single day in Poland, the place the weapons might be handed over to the Ukrainian navy.
Ukraine is probably not a member of NATO, however Ukrainian officers are working instantly with NATO to get weapons into the arms of their troopers.
"They're in touch with senior leaders in Ukraine, which incorporates the chief of protection and ministers of protection, and are prioritizing their necessities based mostly on utilization charges and what they see on the bottom," Rear Admiral Duke Heinz, the director of logistics at U.S. European Command, informed CBS Information.
The Ukrainians could also be outfighting the Russians, however they nonetheless want extra firepower to counter the buildup of Russian forces within the east and to someway cease the cruel bombardment of cities.
"We're in it to win," Heinz stated. "It is the highest precedence."