Washington will not prioritize Kiev over reliable buyers of US weapons, defense officials said
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has informed Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky that violating long-standing US arms deals with other customers awaiting ATACMS missile systems is “too much to ask,” according to the Wall Street Journal.
The US sent Ukraine an unknown number of MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, but Kiev has apparently used most of them and has for months been requesting more – as well as permission to strike deeper into Russian territory.
The Pentagon has been hesitant to send additional missiles, arguing that Moscow has already relocated its valuable targets out of range and that the US military has a finite number of ATACMS in its stockpiles.
Additionally, the US has obligations to paying customers who ordered the systems first. The Pentagon chief rejected Zelensky’s recent plea to prioritize the delivery of ATACMS to Ukraine,…
