Washington decided to send a division of the Patriot air defense system to Ukraine.

Washington and the US Department of Defense have agreed on a decision to send American Patriot anti-aircraft missile systems to Ukraine. Initially, it was assumed that these advanced technologies would not be transferred to the Ukrainian military, however, according to The Washington Post, after Biden signed the Lend-Lease Law, they nevertheless decided to send these weapons to Ukraine.

The bill, passed on Thursday by an 86-to-11 vote, provides for a total of $20 billion in military assistance that is expected to fund the transfer of advanced weapons systems such as Patriot anti-aircraft missile systems and long-range artillery. The bill also includes more than $8 billion in general economic support for Ukraine, almost $5 billion in global food aid to address potential food shortages caused by the collapse of the Ukrainian agricultural economy, and more than $1 billion in cumulative support for refugees.”, according to The Washington Post.

Experts note that the American Patriot air defense systems will probably be deployed in the western part of Ukraine, since Washington is quite afraid that such weapons could be captured by the Russian military.

A little earlier, it became known that the first cargo ships departed from Norfolk to Europe, delivering weapons to Ukraine.