As WP report, the U.S. defense officials said, at the beginning of the Russian invasion, they relied on aircraft to get arms to Ukraine, but now the Pentagon has solved to expand the use of maritime shipping to deliver weapons.
The Defense Department began sending some items by the sea a few weeks after the invasion but significantly broadened the effort this spring, as the United States began providing Ukraine with howitzer artillery and other heavy weapons that require a steady flow of large-caliber ammunition, U.S. defense officials said here at the headquarters of U.S. Transportation Command, as Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks visited recently.
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“Once we started to provide them howitzers, we knew that we were going to need more ammunition,” said Army Col. Steven Putthoff, the deputy director of operations at U.S. Transportation Command. “So, we could plan ahead a little bit more, and then we could start to use more sealift to provide that support and to get it there, sometimes even ahead of the request.”
The expansion underscores a new phase in the campaign, after a Russian assault on Kyiv was repelled and Ukraine and its partners settled in for what is expected to be a grinding war that could continue for months more and possibly years. The
Biden's administration has approved $12.9 billion of military assistance for Ukraine since the Feb. 24 invasion and pledged an additional $2.98 billion of support Wednesday, on Ukraine’s Independence Day.
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