Pentagon said Ukraine should pay for arms supplied to it
Kiev must begin to pay for the weapons it receives from the United States on its own – as stated by Assistant Secretary of Defence for International Security Affairs Celeste Wallander, during a hearing in the US House Committee on Appropriations, TASS reports
Congressman Mike Garcia noted that it would be much better for US taxpayers if Kiev began to purchase weapons on its own, and not receive them for free, as is the case now. Responding to this statement, Wallander stressed that the Ukrainian authorities have so far ‘not made any major purchases from American [military] companies’.
“They don’t have that scale of capacity in the budget right now, but they should start acquiring some [military] assets. This is a very good idea, we need to get them to start planning their own defense spending and everything else that we will do to support them,” she added.
As US Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer said earlier, US lawmakers approved a total of $113bn in military, economic and humanitarian aid to Kiev last year.
