It’s Official: Ukraine to Receive 47 Dollars Worth of Javelin Anti-Tank Missiles from Pentagon

Ukraine will receive Javelin anti-tank missiles from the U.S. The Pentagon approved the contract, but Kiev will have to fork out: the total amount to pay is of 47 million US dollars. Ukraine will receive more than 200 missiles and 37 CLUs, American instructors will train Ukrainian militarians.

Artem Kol with the details.

Ukrainian soldiers will have the American lethal weapons, after all The US military said that they approved the signing a contract for the delivery of Javelin anti-tank systems for fighting in the Donbass. The Pentagon press service reported as follows.

"The State Department decided to approve the potential sale of Javelin anti-tank complexes to Ukraine at an estimated cost of $47 million".

 

Ukraine can get 37 CLUs and 210 missiles for this money. The contract hasn't been signed yet, but experts believe it is a matter of time. The former U.S. Army Europe commanding general Ben Hogers commented on the supply of Javelin in an interview with the German TV channel Deutsche Welle the day before.

Ben Hogers: "There is a powerful defense industry in Ukraine that can produce high-quality anti-tank systems, so I suggest carefully looking closer to it. It’s not beyond the complexity of the technology, why doesn't Ukraine produce its own system? Washington is interested in how to stop violence in the Donbass, but not enough to save Russia's achievements in this area".

The general sincerely believes that the US anti-tank systems will strengthen Ukraine's position in negotiations on the settlement of the Donbass conflict. The Russian Foreign Ministry has already reacted to this statement.

Maria Zakharova, MFA of Russia: "What does all this lead to? Has it been calculated or analyzed? Is it really the settlement of the conflict that they want to achieve? That's what the Minsk agreements were signed for Everything is spelled out there. By the way, there isn't a word about arms supplies being able to help to resolve the situation. It's totally different. There is a step-by-step settlement plan that needs to be implemented gradually".

Maria Zakharova stressed that all countries should use their political influence on the parties of the conflict to implement the Minsk agreements.

At the same time, the authorities of the DPR stated that they can't wait to face the US anti-tank systems.

Eduard Basurin, DPR Ministry of Defence: "We have already been trained how to fight against these systems. We are ready, let them bring it here. This will give us new samples".

Eduard Basurin believes that buying Javelins is just a waste of the Ukrainian budget. The army of Ukraine is not ready to use such systems. Experts say the approved number of missiles is unlikely to be able to change something on the contact line in the Donbass. will come to Ukraine accompanied by expensive American instructors, who are paid thousands of dollars a day on their mission to the war zone. To teach Ukrainians to use those weapons, they’ll have to use up all the ammunition that was purchased. By the time they might start using it, it will already be useless".

At the same time, according to the Defense-Industrial Courier, Ukraine is getting ready to export the modernized Oplot tank produced by the Malyshev plant. The US military might want to learn more about the tactical characteristics of Soviet military equipment.

Artem Kol, Igor Kalyuzhny — Vesti