Evidence has surfaced over the last two days that U.S. military support is once again flowing to Ukraine, though so far at much lower levels than was typical during the Biden years.
The Kyiv Post, citing diplomatic sources, reported yesterday that the Trump Administration on April 30 informed Congress about its intention to green-light the export of defense-related products to Ukraine through direct commercial sales (DCS) in the amount of $50 million or more. This would be the first such approval since Donald Trump took office in January.
“All DCS are quiet; they don’t get announced publicly like Foreign Military Sales” Colby Badhwar, security assistance analyst at Tochnyi, a research group, told Kyiv Post’s Washington correspondent. “The news here is basically that it (U.S. arms sales) is continuing, despite everyone predicting that Trump would cut Ukraine off completely,” he added.
Also being reported is the arrival of an Ukrainian An-124 cargo aircraft at Tucson International Airport, Arizona, to pick up a load of partially disassembled F-16 fighter jets some time in the last few days. (According to The War Zone)[https://www.twz.com/air/f-16s-pulled-from-u-s-boneyard-are-being-delivered-to-ukraine-for-spare-parts], flight trackers showed the aircraft then flying to Poland. An Air Force spokesperson told TWZ website that the Department of the Air Force “has supported the sustainment of European-donated F-16s to Ukraine by providing disused and completely non-operational F-16s to Ukraine for parts. These F-16s were retired from active U.S. use and are not flyable. Importantly, they lack critical components such as an engine or radar and could not be reconstituted for operational use.”
