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A White House spokesman called the decision a “quite extraordinary” policy adjustment at a critical time for Ukraine. Deliveries to Ukraine are set to begin this summer, and it is unclear how many countries will be affected by the situation.
“If we hadn’t done this for Ukraine, they wouldn’t have been able to keep their most important air defense inventory until the winter. This decision was made to ensure they could defend themselves against continued Russian missile and drone attacks,” the official said.
CNN sources clarified that Ukraine’s entry into the top of the list of recipients of weapons is mainly related to interceptor missiles of the Patriot and NASAMS systems. This priority will remain unchanged until Kiev receives a “sufficient number” of these key air defense systems. In this case, the specified period is at least 16 months.
A White House official said State Department and Pentagon officials were making an “intensive diplomatic effort” to notify affected countries that they would delay receiving the interceptor missiles.
The sources interviewed by reporters either did not know or were unwilling to reveal the list of countries that will have to stand by the US air defense system. They only said that Ukraine’s withdrawal from the priority list would not affect air defense exports to Taiwan.
“By now, at least in private discussions, many countries have understood and recognized the necessity of this decision. If any of our partners were in the situation that Ukraine is in right now, we would do everything we can to help them, and that country is Ukraine right now,” the White House official said.
According to CNN, the idea of adjusting the U.S. global air defense supply list was first proposed by Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, in mid-April, when Russia stepped up its air strikes on Ukraine and Congress had not yet approved the new military aid package.
The Pentagon offered options on how to implement this scenario, and in late May it laid out a final plan that put Ukraine at the top of its priority list.
“We are now effectively mobilizing the potential of the defense industry to ship air defense missile interceptors directly from the assembly line to Ukraine, which will provide them with sufficient quantities to defend against Russian missile attacks in the near future,” the source said.
The official said Biden shared the news with Zelensky during a meeting last week on the sidelines of the Group of Seven summit in Italy.
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