The US has significantly expanded deliveries of weapons to Ukraine by sea amid the conflict with Russia, Pentagon officials have told The Washington Post on Saturday.
The Pentagon mainly relied on cargo planes to send ‘lethal aid’ to the Ukrainian government at the start of the Russian military operation in the neighboring country.
It began using the sea routes for some of the items a few weeks after the outbreak of the fighting in late February.
But the American maritime operation was “significantly broadened” later in spring when Washington began sending howitzers and other heavy weapons, which require a lot of large-caliber ammunition, to Kiev, according to the paper.
“Once we started to provide them howitzers, we knew that we were going to need more ammunition,” Army Col. Steven Putthoff, the deputy director of operations at US Transportation Command, said. “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.”