US, allies working to provide anti-ship missiles to Ukraine

The U.S. and allies are working to send anti-ship missiles to Ukraine as it scrambles to bolster up Kyiv’s ability to defend itself against Russia’s invasion.

“We have started consulting with Allies on providing anti-ship missiles to Ukraine,” a senior administration official told reporters after President Biden attended a NATO summit. 

“There may be some technical challenges with making that happen, but that is something that we are consulting with Allies and starting to work on,” the official said.

News of the anti-ship missiles comes as the U.S. scrambles to send as much military equipment to Ukraine as it can as Russia’s invasion of the country enters its second month.

Last week alone, Washington provided over $1 billion in military assistance in Ukraine, the bulk of which comes from an $800 million weapons package of anti-aircraft defenses, drones, and other weapons that Biden announced last Wednesday.

Biden attended a NATO summit on Thursday, and is also scheduled to meet with G7 leaders and a European Union summit

In a statement on the NATO meeting, Biden said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the summit.

“We will continue to support him and his government with significant, and increasing, amounts of security assistance to fight Russian aggression and uphold their right to self-defense,” the president said.

“I welcome the steps by many other Allies to provide defensive support to Ukraine and together, we are committed to identifying additional equipment, including air defense systems, to help Ukraine,” he added.

A senior administration official told reporters that Zelensky repeated is request for security aid to Ukraine, but notably did not push the alliance to establish a no-fly zone over Ukraine. The Ukrainian president and other government officials repeatedly asked for such help, and that the alliance has rejected those pleas.