US Congress passes bill sanctioning arms supply to Ukraine

The Senate of the United States Congress has passed a bill enabling Washington to initiate supply of weapons to Ukraine.

As reported by Censor.NET citing TASS, it regards the bill on defense spending in 2016 fiscal year which began on Oct. 1. It includes provisions on rendering military aid to Ukraine. The total amount of military purposes appropriations set out in this document makes $612 bln. Previously, the bill was approved by the House of Representatives.

The document does not bind, but gives Pentagon Chief Ashton Carter, in coordination with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, the right to use $300 mln to render Kyiv an appropriate assistance in the field of security and intelligence.

This comes to providing Ukraine with "real time or near real time actionable intelligence" and the so-called "lethal assistance" such as anti-armor weapon systems, mortars, crew-served weapons and ammunition, grenade launchers and ammunition, and small arms and ammunition.

Moreover, Ukraine may receive counter-artillery radars, unmanned aerial tactical surveillance systems, counter-electronic warfare capabilities such as secure communications equipment and other electronic protection systems. The above amount also presupposes training of the armed forces and other security forces of Ukraine's government.