Military aid for Kyiv worth $60 billion will serve as a giant morale boost on the front line, as Russia continues to try to seize more territory. At the same time, equipment and weapons can be delivered promptly.
This was reported by CNN.
The aid bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives is now to be sent to the Senate on April 23. If the upper house of Congress passes it, President Joe Biden said he would sign it immediately to "quickly send weapons and equipment to Ukraine to meet their urgent battlefield needs."
Now that the new US military aid is apparently only days away from receiving the green light, the question is how quickly vital munitions such as 155mm artillery shells can reach the front line to stop Russia's advance.
Earlier, Pentagon Spokesperson, Patrick Ryder said that the US Department of Defense was "poised to respond quickly", once any order was given.
"As you know, we have a very robust logistics network that enables us to move materiel very quickly. As we’ve done in the past, we can move within days," he said.
This statement was echoed by Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner, who expressed hope that the equipment would be "in transit by the end of the week."
Although American officials have not said so openly, a U.S. source familiar with the provision of military aid to Ukraine said that much of it has already been placed in warehouses in Germany and Poland, which would apparently cut down on the amount of time needed to get it into Ukraine.
The source also said that artillery shells would be among the first materials moved forward, the publication reports.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) warns that Ukraine is likely to continue to face ammunition and air defense shortages and related restrictions in the coming weeks, which will affect Ukraine's ability to conduct effective defense operations. ISW suggests that Russia may try to attack transportation networks, such as railroads, to hamper logistics - something it targeted in Ukraine's Dnipropetrovs'k Region on Friday - and try to speed up the pace along the front lines in the limited period before U.S. aid arrives.
Earlier, we wrote that the UK plans to provide Ukraine with the largest military aid package in history.