U.S. Sends Ukraine Seized Iranian-Made Weapons

The Pentagon has provided Ukraine with thousands of Iranian-origin weapons seized en route to Houthi militants in Yemen, U.S. officials said Tuesday, marking the Biden administration’s latest infusion of emergency support for Kyiv while a multibillion-dollar aid package remains stalled in Congress.

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The weapons include 5,000 Kalashnikov rifles, machine guns, sniper rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, along with a half-million rounds of ammunition. They were discovered aboard four “stateless vessels” between 2021 and 2023 and made available for Ukraine through a Justice Department civil forfeiture program targeting Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East.

The arms transfer on April 4 is a striking development, underscoring the administration’s scramble to sustain a once-robust pipeline of U.S. assistance to Ukraine while officials warn that political gridlock in the Republican-led House is costing Kyiv on the battlefield. That the weapons were effectively sourced from Iran also is significant, as Russia has relied on the regime to bolster its military capacity, and with Washington’s long-running feud with Tehran having once more neared a boiling point in recent days.

Administration officials have said Ukraine faces a range of bleak scenarios if additional U.S. military aid does not materialize. Russian forces have mounted an aggressive push, backed by devastating glide bombs, to break through Ukrainian lines and capture more ground in the country’s east. President Volodymyr Zelensky has said his beleaguered military, challenged by dwindling ammunition stocks, is “trying to find some way not to retreat.”

Central Command, which has ramped up efforts to intercept Iranian weapons bound for Yemen’s Houthis amid the militants’ months-long assault on commercial and military vessels, said the cache sent to Ukraine is enough to supply rifles to an entire brigade.