The US authorities probably do not publicly announce shipment of certain weapons to Kiev, Politico speculated Monday.
“Rumors are swirling around Washington that the United States has provided Ukraine with more weapons than the administration has announced publicly,” the report reads.
In particular, last Friday, a high-ranking Pentagon representative acknowledged during a briefing that the US has been shipping HARM anti-radar missiles to Ukraine without announcing it publicly.
“When we first announced the initial provision of HARM missiles, the way that we characterized it in the announcement was not specific. We described that we were providing a counter-radar capability,” the official said.
Later, Yahoo News also speculated that the US shipped ATACMS guided tactical ballistic missiles, Politico notes.
“If true — and it’s not clear that it is — that would go against what the administration has said publicly,” the report says.
In addition, Politico’s sources also said that the new package of military aid to Kiev announced last week also includes Excalibur guided artillery shells. They were also not mentioned separately in the Pentagon’s official announcement. Furthermore, Politico obtained the official notification that the US Administration handed over to the Congress in regards with the recent aid package. According to the report, this document mentions that the weapons sent to Ukraine are not “limited” by what’s featured in the notification.
“We admit this is all speculation. No member of the administration confirmed or even hinted that there were secret shipments of weapons to Ukraine. Even if there were, there’s little to no chance they’d share a classified decision with us,” Politico says.
