US sends advanced weapons to Kyiv

The United States is sending advanced weapons and other arms to Ukraine amid its conflict with Russia, but the effort is not without logistical challenges.

The push to provide the weapons is "complicated by limited supply lines, a potentially small window to save Kyiv from collapse and a Cold War legacy that made Western small arms ammunition incompatible with those produced in the Eastern Bloc", The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.

However, a senior US defense official was quoted by the newspaper as saying: "We believe it is getting into the right hands, that they are actively using these systems."

On Tuesday, in a speech delivered via video to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused the West of anti-Russian "hysteria".

"It was and still is the aim of the US and all its allies built by Washington to create an 'anti-Russia'," he said.

The diplomat said he had planned to attend the session in person but bans on flights by European countries from Russia had prevented him from traveling to Switzerland.

During the speech, in which more than 100 mostly Western diplomats walked out, Lavrov also said that the US should remove its nuclear weapons from Europe.

On Friday, the White House approved a direct delivery of Stinger missiles to Ukraine. The Stingers are highly accurate and are used to shoot down helicopters and other aircraft.

They are made by Arizona-based Raytheon Missiles &Defense, a subsidiary of Raytheon Technologies, based in Massachusetts. Each missile has an estimated cost of about $117,000.

"The Stinger-Reprogrammable Microprocessor, or RMP, the missile has … supersonic speed, agility, and a highly accurate guidance and control system (that) give the weapon an operational edge against cruise missiles and all classes of aircraft," the Raytheon website says.

US President Joe Biden on Saturday authorized the State Department to send $350 million of weapons to Ukraine. Also included are Javelin anti-tank weapons.

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin told House lawmakers that the US is considering ways to train Ukrainian soldiers remotely if Russia seizes Ukraine, Axios reported.

Agencies contributed to this story.