The United States transferred to Ukraine hundreds of machine weapons, sniper rifles, rocket launchers and a whole bunch of hundreds of rounds of ammunition seized from Iran final week, U.S. Central Command introduced Tuesday.
Ukraine is affected by shortages of arms and ammunition within the struggle towards Russia, and the United States can’t ship extra tools from its personal stockpile till Congress approves further funding.
Centcom stated the provides transferred to Ukraine are sufficient to equip one Ukrainian brigade (roughly 4,000 folks) with small arms rifles. “These weapons will assist Ukraine defend towards Russian aggression,” Centcom stated in his assertion.
The ammunition was initially seized by the U.S. navy and its companions “from 4 separate stateless vessels in transit between May 22, 2021 and February 15, 2023,” however the U.S. authorities It didn’t take possession of the tools till December 2021 by the Department of Justice’s civil forfeiture course of. Last yr, CENTCOM acknowledged:
This shouldn’t be the primary time that the US has transferred seized Iranian navy tools to Ukrainians. CNN beforehand reported that the US transferred greater than 1 million rounds of Iranian ammunition seized in October to the Ukrainian navy.
Over the previous yr, the U.S. Navy has seized hundreds of Iranian-made assault rifles and greater than 1 million rounds of ammunition from ships utilized by Iran to move arms to Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels. . The seizures, that are continuously carried out with accomplice forces within the area, goal stateless small vessels on routes which have traditionally been used to smuggle weapons to the Houthis.
The Biden administration has continued efforts over the previous yr to legally ship confiscated weapons saved in Centcom amenities throughout the Middle East to Ukrainians.
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