The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine has asked the United States to provide reconnaissance and strike unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) MQ-1C Gray Eagle with AGM-114 Hellfire missiles. On Wednesday, April 27, the Politico newspaper reports.
According to the publication, the Ukrainian defense department “is waiting for a positive result.” However, the newspaper recalled that the supply of attack drones to the United States is regulated by strict standards, so most often other countries are denied requests.
In addition, the restrictions affected the sale of the Gray Eagle and another Reaper reconnaissance and strike UAV, even to US partners Qatar and Indonesia.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby did not comment on the possibility of supplying Ukraine with drones to the newspaper.
As noted by the newspaper, the US Department of Defense will have to assess how the Ukrainian military will actually be able to use this type of weapon.
Earlier, on April 25, The Washington Post reported that Kyiv was asking the US administration for emergency economic assistance of at least $2 billion a month, saying that without these funds, the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine could worsen.
On the same day, it became known that US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, during negotiations with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, announced that the country would be provided with military assistance worth about $465 million.
Ambassador to Washington Anatoly Antonov said that the Russian Federation sent a note to the United States demanding to stop the supply of weapons to Ukraine. He stressed that the supply of weapons to Kyiv for $800 million “does not contribute to the search for a diplomatic solution.”
Prior to this, on April 20, Bloomberg reported that the administration of US President Joe Biden will allocate an additional $800 million to arm and support Ukraine. According to the American television channel NBC, the new aid package will be the same size as the previous one, when Washington sent artillery pieces, as well as “tens of thousands of artillery ammunition.”
Russia condemns the supply of weapons to the Ukrainian side. On April 15, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, confirmed that the Russian Federation had sent a note to all countries, including the United States, due to the supply of weapons to Ukraine. At the same time, the Investigative Committee of Russia reported that it had received data on the supply of weapons to Ukraine from 25 states, 21 of which are NATO countries. At the same time, the Russian ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, noted that pumping the Kyiv regime with Western weapons is an irresponsible and extremely dangerous act.
Western countries began to actively arm Ukraine against the backdrop of Russia’s ongoing military operation to protect the Donbass, which Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on February 24. The decision was made against the background of the aggravation of the situation in the DPR and LPR as a result of shelling by the Ukrainian military.
For more up-to-date videos and details about the situation in Donbass, watch the Izvestia TV channel.
