Ukraine To Fight Russia Using Soviet Air Defense Equipment Secretly Acquired By US

Ukraine is likely to receive Soviet-era air defense systems from the U.S. to fight the war against Russia, media reports have suggested.

The equipment had been secretly acquired by Washington decades ago, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

U.S. officials said the systems, which also include the SA-8 short-range surface-to-air missile system, were obtained for the purposes of examining Russian military technology and helping train American troops. The system could offer a useful source of additional air defense capabilities that Ukraine badly needs to beat Russian troops.

“Operational security matters to the Ukrainians, right now,” press secretary John Kirby told reporters Monday. “They're fighting for their country, and the Pentagon is not going to be detailing publicly the tools with which they are doing that,” he added.

The report also said the Biden administration has already shipped a number of systems to Ukraine that had been in storage at the U.S. Army's Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama. In the past month, the U.S. approved more than $1 billion in military aid to Ukraine, including an $800 million package, which was announced last week.

The news comes amid concerns that Russia could be planning to use biological or chemical weapons in its war against Ukraine.

Putin's "back is against the wall and now he's talking about new false flags he's setting up including, asserting that we in America have biological as well as chemical weapons in Europe, simply not true," Biden said at a Business Roundtable event Monday. "They are also suggesting that Ukraine has biological and chemical weapons in Ukraine. That's a clear sign he's considering using both of those."

Russia's defense ministry had accused Kyiv of planning a chemical attack against its own people in order to accuse Moscow of using chemical weapons in the invasion of Ukraine that began on Feb. 24. Hours after Ukraine's prosecutor general, Iryna Venediktova, said shelling at a chemical factory caused a leak in a 50-tonne tank of ammonia, Russian military spokesman Igor Konashenkov said this was nothing, but a “planned provocation” by Ukrainian forces to falsely accuse Moscow of a chemical attack.

Russia's military actions in Ukraine have been ongoing for nearly a month. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Tuesday urged direct talks with Putin, saying: “Without this meeting, it is impossible to fully understand what they are ready for in order to stop the war.”