US spproves sending eight NASAMS to Ukraine
The United States will not start delivering sophisticated NASAMS air defences to Ukraine for another two months or so, the Pentagon said on September 27, disputing reports suggesting Ukraine had already received them.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had been misquoted over the weekend in an English-language television interview transcript suggesting the weapons systems have been delivered, per Reuters.
CBS News' "Face the Nation" corrected the transcript, acknowledging a translation error, and the Pentagon tried to set the record straight about the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS).
"The US has not delivered NASAMS to Ukraine at this stage. We expect the first two to be delivered within the next two months or so," Brigadier General Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, told a news briefing.
NASAMS have long been sought by Kyiv.
The United States has approved sending Ukraine a total of eight NASAMS so far, and Ryder said the remaining six would be "long-term" deliveries.
The arms are part of a larger, more than $15 billion commitment of US security assistance to Ukraine since Russia's invasion began on February 24, according to the US government.
Western-supplied arms have been vital to Kyiv as it recaptured large swathes of northeast Ukraine in a successful counter-offensive earlier this month.
Fighting raged in various parts of Ukraine on September 27.