The United States has formally approved the sale of Javelin anti-tank missiles to Ukraine, the State Department said Thursday, confirming a move expected to anger Kiev’s foe Russia.
The Defense Security Cooperation Agency, part of the Pentagon, said Ukraine has asked President Donald Trump’s administration for permission to buy 210 missiles and 37 launchers at a cost of around $47 million.
US government employees and contractors will help transport the weapons and train Ukraine’s forces, who are fighting a Russian-backed insurgency in the east of the country, to use them.
Deadly: The Javelin anti-tank missile is mobile and lethal, used to take out heavy armor – and will soon be in the hands of Ukraine’s military as they face down Russian forces
Heavy armor: Vladimir Putin’s forces are equipped with tanks including the T-14 Armata main battle tank (right) as well as other fighting vehicles – all of them targets for Javelins
Shift: Trump’s approval is a significant change in policy which had until now steered clear of giving Ukraine lethal force
‘The Javelin system will help Ukraine build its long-term defense capacity to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity in order to meet its national defense requirements,’ the statement said.
The United States and its Western allies back Ukraine in its struggle to reunite its country after Russia annexed the Crimea region and pro-Russian rebels seized two eastern industrial regions.
But Washington has been cautious in the past about escalating the conflict by providing advanced ‘lethal’ weaponry to Kiev, which may provoke a further degradation in tense ties with Moscow.
Nevertheless, the DSCA statement said: ‘The proposed sale of this equipment and support will not alter the basic military balance in the region.’
If no-one in the US Congress objects to the sale, contractors Raytheon and Lockheed Martin will be able to begin supplying the weapons within two months.
Since Moscow’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, Ukraine and Russia have been at loggerheads over a war in eastern Ukraine between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian government forces that has killed more than 10,000 people in three years.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said in December the weapons would be used to protect Ukrainian soldiers and civilians, but Russia said the U.S. decision would encourage those who support the conflict in Ukraine to use force.
The prime contractor will be a joint venture of Raytheon Co and Lockheed Martin Corp, it added.
Putin’s forces include the modern T-14 battle tank, which he has inspected personally in the past.