Washington: Arms shipments to Ukraine may become difficult
3 Min Read
Without giving much detail, European countries may be obstructing Washington's interests, even by a little.
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January's shipment of US "lethal aid" to Ukraine (US Embassy in Kiev)
According to US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, although the West has been successfully sending arms to Ukraine, this may become a more difficult task in the coming days.
Sherman said, "I think it has been extraordinary the amount of arms supplies that are getting in to Ukraine even under the most difficult of circumstances," she told a media briefing in Madrid.
"The international community has been tremendously responsive and has found ways to get the material in. That may become harder in the coming days and we will have to find other ways to manage this," she said, giving away little detail.
Last month, Washington permitted sending $350 million worth of military aid to Ukraine, which is the largest package of aid in US history.
In parallel, the European Union has agreed to send $500 million worth of aid to Kiev, and Ukraine nonetheless still urges the West to boost its military capabilities.
"It is critical that what we send in is what President Zelensky asks for, because he knows what his military needs most," Sherman said.
Hungary bans weapons supplies to Ukraine
Hungary has prohibited supplying Ukraine with weapons through its territory, but authorized the transit of NATO troops to other alliance states, in addition to deploying them in the Hungarian west, according to Viktor Orban, the Hungarian Prime Minister on Monday.
"At the meeting of the National Security Operations Group... we assessed the situation. A decree was published making it clear that weapons cannot be supplied to Ukraine from Hungary's territory," Orban said in a Facebook video.
The decree issued also authorized the deployment of NATO troops. "The government... in compliance with the decision of the heads and governments of NATO countries... except for the case of transit through Ukraine, authorizes transit of allied armed forces by land and air through the territory of Hungary to another [NATO] member state… and deployment in the Transdanubia region in Hungary, if necessary," the decree read.
Latvia requests permanent US troops
Today, Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics announced that he has requested from the United States to deploy US troops permanently to Latvia amid the escalating fighting in Ukraine.
The Latvian FM held talks with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on ways to strengthen regional security and defense.
As part of NATO's expansion, the US stations troops in eastern Europe.
"We spoke at length about further strengthening of NATO's eastern flank... We believe that NATO and particularly the US must have a permanent military presence here in the current circumstances," Rinkevics said in a press conference.
