"Within days, if not sooner": Pentagon on when Ukraine to receive the first batches of armaments

The U.S. Department of Defense has already started the process of delivering to Ukraine the capabilities allocated the day before in the latest defense assistance package, and expects that the first batches, including those of artillery rounds, will arrive in the near future.

This was stated by Pentagon spokesman General Patrick Ryder, Ukrinform's own correspondent reports.

"We have already started the process to move some of the weapons, ammunition, and equipment, which will be there (in Ukraine - ed.) within days, if not sooner," said the DOD spokesman.

He clarified that some weapons would be delivered urgently, while the shipment of other capabilities will take a bit longer.

"But when it comes to essential capabilities, like ammunition, we are already moving out to make those deliveries," the general clarified.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, on Wednesday, April 24, U.S. President Joe Biden signed into law the bill on supplemental national security funding, which lays down, among other things, over $60 billion in aid to Ukraine. Later, the U.S. State Department said the country is allocating a $1 billion tranche of defense aid to the embattled nation.

The defense assistance package to Ukraine, announced by the US administration on Wednesday, included RIM-7 missiles for air defense systems, Stingers, HIMARS munitions, NATO-type artillery rounds, Bradley IFVs, as well as other armaments and spare parts for the equipment already supplied.