The US State Department has approved for Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania to send US-made anti-armor missiles and other weapons to Ukraine amid rising fears of a Russian invasion of the country.
Under export control regulations, a country obtains US approval to sell American weapons to a third country. The requests were made in recent weeks, and the last of the three was approved on Wednesday, Politico revealed.
The approval will allow Estonia to rush Javelin anti-tank missiles to Ukraine and Lithuania to send Stinger ground-to-air missiles, according to Reuters.
US, UK Announcements
The news emerged hours after US President Joe Biden predicted in a press conference that Russia would “move-in” to Ukraine, for which, he warned, Moscow would pay a heavy price.
The same day, the US administration disclosed that $200 million in security assistance for Ukraine was approved in December.
The British government has also announced the sending of anti-armor weapons training personnel to Ukraine.
Rising Tension
The fresh rise in tensions is also tied to the arrival of Russian troops in Belarus for a hastily announced military exercise.
A State Department official was quoted by Politico that “Russia could intend to station troops in Belarus under the guise of joint military exercises in order to potentially attack Ukraine from the north.”
Russian officials have repeatedly denied any plan to invade Ukraine. However, Western nations believe the amassing of 100,000 troops across the Ukrainian border is preparation for a war to prevent Kyiv from joining NATO.
