Blinken said the US was transferring “a lot of weapons” to Ukraine long before a full-scale war broke out
Kyiv • UNN
The USA prepared for the conflict in advance and secretly supplied weapons to Ukraine since September 2021. Among the weapons supplied were Stinger and Javelin, which played an important role in Kiev's defense.
U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said in an interview with the New York Times that the United States “long before Russian aggression occurred” was transferring a lot of weapons so that Ukraine would have something to defend itself with, reports UNN.
“... if you look at the trajectory of the conflict, because we foresaw it coming, we were able to make sure that not only were we ready, allies and partners were ready, but Ukraine was ready. We made sure that long before the Russian aggression happened, starting in September and then again in December, we quietly delivered a lot of weapons to Ukraine so that they had everything they needed to defend themselves, things like the Stinger, the Javelin, which were instrumental in preventing Russia from taking over Kiev, taking over the country, wiping it off the map and essentially pushing the Russians back,” Blinken reported.
He said it's important to realize that at different points in time, people focus on one weapon system or the other.
“Is that an Abrams tank? Is it an F-16? Every time we had to look at not only should we give it to the Ukrainians, but do they know how to use it? Can they keep it operational? Is it part of a coherent plan? All of those things factored into the decisions we made about what to give them and when to give it to them,” Blinken summarized.
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