Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said that "half a dozen” shipments of security assistance for Ukraine has already “flowed into the region” from the $800 million package US President Joe Biden signed on March 16, during a briefing on Thursday.
“Those shipments are already arriving, in fact from the time he signed the order to the first shipment going on its way was like four days Jen, and there’s already been a half a dozen shipments that have flowed into the region,” Kirby said.
“I can tell you that things aren’t sitting long at these intermediate staging shipment sites before they’re getting picked up by convoys and getting taken into Ukraine, so four days is pretty quick,” he added.
Kirby estimated it will likely take “a couple of weeks” to complete shipments from the $800 million package.
“We don’t think it’s going to take very long to complete the $800 dollar package, getting it all filled out, we really don’t think that’s going to take long at all, couple of weeks probably,” he said.
The shipments are not all solely weapons. They are a mixture of “weapons systems” and then “support and sustainment items” which includes “food, body armor, helmets small arms and ammunition, medical and first aid kits,” Kirby said.
Some weapons systems, like Javelins and Stingers, have been in these first few packages to Ukraine, Kirby added.
“In these first half a dozen or so, there have been weapons systems, there have been Javelins, there have been Stingers, that have gone in as well as medical supplies and body armor and small arms and ammunition,” he said.