Stingers, Javelins, part of Biden’s $800 million package, arrive in Ukraine

The US on Thursday said that several shipments of lethal and medical aid, announced as part of an $800 million package by President Joe Biden, had reached Ukraine, while the rest were on their way and would reach the war-torn country in two weeks’ time.

The update on the status of the shipments of lethal aid was given by Pentagon press secretary John Kirby during a briefing on Thursday, who told reporters, “Those shipments are already arriving, in fact from the time he signed the order to the first shipment going on its way was like four days Jen, and there’s already been a half a dozen shipments that have flowed into the region.”

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“I can tell you that things aren’t sitting long at these intermediate staging shipment sites before they’re getting picked up by convoys and getting taken into Ukraine, so four days is pretty quick,” the 59-year-old added, clarifying that bureaucratic or logistical hurdles would not hamper the delivery of the shipments to Ukraine.

The Pentagon press secretary further clarified that the shipments to Ukraine contained a mixture of “weapons systems” and “support and sustainment items.”

“In these first half a dozen or so, there have been weapons systems, there have been Javelins, there have been Stingers, that have gone in as well as medical supplies and body armor and small arms and ammunition,” Kirby said, detailing the contents of the shipments.

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Commenting on when the rest of the shipments would reach war-torn Ukraine, the Pentagon press secretary flatly said, “We don’t think it’s going to take very long to complete the $800 [million] dollar package, getting it all filled out, we really don’t think that’s going to take long at all, couple of weeks probably.”

The $800 million package was announced by President Joe Biden on March 16, taking the total amount of money pledged by the US to Ukraine to more than $2 billion since the beginning of the Russian invasion.