Officials said Iran intended to supply the weapons to the Houthis, who have staged a months-long assault on commercial and military vessels transiting off the Arabian Peninsula. Central Command said the cache is enough to supply rifles to an entire Ukrainian brigade, which vary in size but typically include a few thousand soldiers.
The inventory list does not include artillery ammunition or air defense weapons, which are among Ukraine’s most dire battlefield needs. Ukrainian military commanders have been forced to ration both, leaving troops and civilians vulnerable to Russian attacks.
The new supply of Iranian-made weapons comes as Russian forces mount an aggressive push, backed by devastating glide bombs, to break through Ukrainian lines and capture more ground in the country’s east. President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that Ukraine’s beleaguered military, challenged by dwindling ammunition stocks, is “trying to find some way not to retreat.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who has refused to hold a vote on a Senate-approved national security package that also includes aid for U.S.-ally Israel and other national security priorities, is expected to introduce a plan for additional Ukraine aid later this month. But he has not said when the House might vote on it.
The new batch of weapons provided to Ukraine were inspected and deemed safe and in working condition, said a U.S. defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the transfer process. Ukrainian troops have in the past voiced frustration over the condition of some U.S.- and Western-provided weapons, which are often from older warehouse stocks.
U.S. officials have warned with increasing urgency that Ukraine faces a range of bleak scenarios if additional U.S. military aid does not materialize. Washington has been, by far, the largest supplier of arms to Ukraine since Russia mounted its full-scale invasion more than two years ago.
“They’re not asking for someone to fight the fight for them,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, appearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, told lawmakers Tuesday. “They’re asking for the means to sustain their efforts.”
Austin predicted that soon the Ukrainian military would “atrophy” without more American weaponry.
The alarming battlefield picture has prompted officials in Washington and across Europe to reconsider what risks they are willing to take to their own security to continue to assist Ukraine.
Last month, for instance, the Pentagon announced that it would send $300 million in additional U.S. weapons to Kyiv after finding “unanticipated cost savings” in recent arms contracts. That package was among the last sent to Ukraine.
Abigail Hauslohner, Dan Lamothe and Missy Ryan contributed to this report.
