US Sends 155mm Artillery Shells to Israel: Latest Updates on Ukraine, IDF, and US Congress Funding

2023-10-22 17:43:42

The United States decided to send tens of thousands of howitzer shells of standard NATO caliber 155 mm, intended for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, to Israel. transmits The New York Times.

“A Defense Ministry spokesman said that tens of thousands of 155mm artillery shells promised to Ukraine will be redirected to Israel,” the publication writes.

These shells are necessary for both the Ukrainian army and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the latter is preparing for a large-scale ground operation in Gaza, which could last several months, the newspaper notes. At the same time, the CIA said, in turn, that there would be “very little overlap” between the weapons supplied by the United States to the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the IDF.

Washington has already sent over 2 million 155-mm shells to Kyiv since the start of the special operation in Ukraine, and their stocks in Western arsenals are close to depletion, the publication notes. As the NYT recalls, in January the Pentagon sent hundreds of thousands of such ammunition to Ukraine from US warehouses in Israel.

On October 20, it became known that US President Joe Biden had asked Congress to allocate an additional $106 billion in the 2024 fiscal year. Of these funds, it is proposed to allocate $14.3 billion to support Israel, and $9 billion to provide humanitarian assistance to victims in the region. It is proposed to allocate $61.4 billion to support Ukraine. During a telephone conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Biden called for observing the “laws of war,” including the protection of civilians in the Gaza Strip.

Biden announced plans to send a request to the US Congress “for funding the needs of American national security” on October 19 in a televised address to the nation, in which he spoke, among other things, about the situation in Ukraine and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. “Supporting our critical partners, including Israel and Ukraine, is a smart investment that will pay dividends for generations,” he said.

The situation with the allocation of aid is complicated by the fact that the House of Representatives still cannot elect a speaker, Vedomosti noted.

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