MOSCOW (dpa-AFX) - The United States has announced that it will re-prioritize the deliveries of air defense missiles rolling off the production line in favor of Ukraine.
'This will ensure that we'll be able to provide Ukraine with the missiles they need to maintain their stockpiles at a key moment in the war and as we get, again, towards the end of summer and into the fall,' White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby said at a teleconference.
The U.S. pledge comes after President Volodymyr Zelensky revealed that the Ukrainian military is in desperate need of additional air defense capabilities to stand up to relentless Russian aggression.
The Pentagon has already provided Ukraine with a variety of air defense systems and interceptor missiles from its stockpiles, including the Patriot system, NASAMs, and the Hawks.
'Many of our allies and partners have stepped up in historic ways as well. But obviously, more is needed, and it's needed now. So as a result, the United States government has made the difficult but necessary decision to re-prioritize, near term, planned deliveries of foreign military sales to other countries of particularly Patriot and NASAM missiles to go to Ukraine instead,' Kirby told reporters.
Kirby explained that as a result of this decision, deliveries of missiles to other countries that are currently in the queue will have to be delayed. He made it clear that those countries will still receive the missiles that they have ordered. 'It's just that the delivery timelines will now take a little longer.'
He added that Washington has informed all the affected countries about the extraordinary step that it has taken.
When asked about the ramifications of the defense pact that Russia and North Korea signed earlier this week, the top U.S. security official said the agreement should be a concern to any country that cares about maintaining peace and stability, not just on the Korean Peninsula but in the Indo-Pacific.
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