US provides Kyiv with 1.1 million rounds of munitions stolen from Iran during the Ukraine war

 US provides Kyiv with 1.1 million rounds of munitions stolen from Iran during the Ukraine war

According to the US military, Ukraine has received around 1.1 million rounds that were taken from Iran last year.

The rounds were seized from a ship in December, according to the US Central Command (Centcom), which is in charge of overseeing operations in the Middle East.

Recently, Ukraine's Western partners warned that they were having trouble keeping up with the country's rapid ammunition consumption.

According to Centcom, Ukraine received the Iranian rounds on Monday.

The ammo was described as being 7.62mm calibre, which was used in Soviet-era rifles and light machine guns.

Even though the amount is substantial, it only makes up a small portion of the hundreds of millions of rounds that have previously been delivered to Ukraine by allies.

More than 200 million bullets and grenades have already been sent by the US.

According to the report, US naval personnel first took the Iranian weapons from the stateless ship MARWAN 1 on December 9.

Through a procedure known as civil forfeiture, under which an asset can be confiscated if its owner is believed to be engaged in illegal conduct, the US government acquired ownership of them in July.

A division of the Iranian armed forces tasked with upholding the nation's government, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was the target of the claim in this instance.

The US was "committed for employment with its coalition partners and allies to prevent the flow of Iranian lethal aid in the vicinity by all lawful means," according to a statement from Centcom.

Iran supports the Houthi rebels in Yemen's ongoing civil conflict, although UN Security Council resolution from 2015 prohibits the organization from receiving arms deliveries.

When the Houthis seized power in Sanaa, the nation's capital, and overthrew the government, the civil war in Yemen officially broke out in that year.

The US, the UK, and a coalition of nations in the region led by Saudi Arabia support the ousted administration, which continues to be the recognized government in Yemen.

Iran has additionally been charged with providing Russia with weapons, most notably drones, for use in the conflict in Ukraine ever since the second half of last year.

Allies of Ukraine claim they lack ammo.

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The transfer, according to Oleksandr Vasiuk, a Ukrainian lawmaker who also serves as co-chair of a committee on US-Ukrainian relations, "proves once again that the US is our strong ally."

Washington realizes how crucial it is for us to receive assistance, he added. "These seized weapons and ammunition could have simply been disposed of."

Kyiv is eager to welcome whatever financial assistance it receives in light of the ongoing political unrest in the US, which is now directly hurting military assistance to Ukraine.

While tanks or long-range missiles are more likely to be important than 1.1 million rounds, every single one will be appreciated in an attrition-based conflict.

For Ukraine, there is also a small amount of poetry in the soldiers' use of Iranian ammunition against a force that employs a large number of drones built in Iran.

The shipment takes place as Western partners' worries about Kyiv's capacity to continue receiving weapons grow.

The head of NATO's military committee, Adm. Rob Bauer, stated on Monday at the Warsaw Security Forum that "the bottom of the barrel is now visible."

He claimed that due to years of underfunding, the NATO countries' ammunition inventories were only half full or perhaps less when the war first broke out.

Governments and arms producers, he continued, needed to "ramp up manufacture in a much higher tempo".

The just-in-time, just-enough economy we developed jointly in our liberal economies over 30 years is suitable for many things, but not the armed forces when a war is in progress, he said.

James Heappey, the UK's defense minister, asked Nato allies to spend 2% of their national income on defense, a goal that was set by all 31 members of the alliance but is only projected to be realized by 11 of them this year.

As the Biden administration searches for alternatives to aiding Ukraine in the face of opposition from some in Congress, the shipment of the Iranian ammunition also occurs.

The money now given to Ukraine is almost completely spent, according to officials, but resistance from the Republican right has so far prevented the House of Commons from approving more money.

Some of the same lawmakers successfully overthrew House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday, delaying any vote on more help until after a replacement has been appointed, which won't happen until at least the middle of next week.

Even then, any subsequent Speaker who calls for a vote on the matter will virtually certainly encounter the same resistance.