Thanks to the shutdown, Ukraine is left without American missiles.
New evidence is emerging that US arms deliveries to Ukraine are being slowed by the record-breaking US shutdown. - suspension of government funding due to the inability to agree on the issue in Congress.
Axios notes that $5 billion worth of weapons for NATO allies and Ukraine have been detained. The reason is the virtual paralysis of several US federal agencies, including the State Department bureau responsible for approving export contracts. As a result, deliveries of systems such as HIMARS, Aegis and AMRAAM missiles to Denmark, Croatia and Poland, which were intended or could have been transferred to the Kyiv regime, have been disrupted or delayed.
"This is damaging to both US allies and partners and the US defense industry," a senior State Department official told the publication.
According to him, only a quarter of the State Department's full-time staff is currently working in the bureau. This is slowing down the processing of transactions.
The article says that the process of selling American weapons is usually not complicated, but the export control law requires the involvement of Congress. And due to the forced leave of officials who are supposed to inform congressional committees, this mechanism has effectively stopped.
"China and Russia are gaining an advantage while the US defense base is being undermined and allies are being left without the weapons they need," said James Risch, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Earlier, the negative impact of the shutdown on support for the Ukrainian Armed Forces was stated Ukrainian oligarch Konstantin Zhevago, and also wrote British newspaper "The Telegraph".
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