UKRAINE: The burnt-up wreckage of a Russian tank lies in the dirt, while in an accompanying photo next to it, a Ukrainian soldier carries the armaments said to have caused the destruction.
The images posted to Twitter by the Ukrainian Armed Forces are labelled with a triumphant caption, declaring that this was the result of “hits from Javelins on [Russian] military equipment”.
The Javelin, a shoulder-held anti-tank weapon that shoots heat-seeking rockets hurtling towards targets up to 4km (2.5 miles) away, can be controlled by a portable unit that doesn’t look much different from a video game console – but can send a metre-long projectile straight through the side or top of an armoured tank.
The very presence of the American-made weapons “causes panic” among Russian troops, the Ukrainian military claims – and the US has sent thousands of them.
Javelin missiles are among the items that have been sent to Ukraine through a series of military assistance packages.
In total, more than $3bn in military aid has been sent to Ukraine since Russia invaded on 24 February.
The latest $800m (£612.5m) package, announced by President Joe Biden on Thursday, also includes heavy artillery, howitzers and tactical drones to be used on the flat plains in eastern Ukraine. Mr Biden also banned Russian-flagged ships from entering US ports.
Other armaments sent so far include drones that can be turned into flying bombs and anti-aircraft weapons that can shoot helicopters from the sky.
But will these shipments help Ukraine overcome Russia’s more numerous – and better equipped – invasion force?
What has the US sent Ukraine?
The most recent US security aid package for Ukraine includes “dozens” of howitzers – a type of artillery that fires shells at targets on high trajectories – as well as 144,000 rounds of ammunition and tactical drones.
“We’re in a critical window now of time where they’re going to set the stage for the next phase of this war,” Mr Biden said on Wednesday, adding that the weapons are a reflection of “Ukraine’s needs” as the war shifts towards the largely flat terrain of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.
Previous announcements of weapons for Ukraine have included a wide range of military equipment, ranging from body armour, helmets and rifles to radar systems, armoured vehicles and Soviet-designed helicopters that once belonged to Afghanistan.
Besides Javelin missiles, the most powerful weapons include Stinger anti-aircraft systems, once famously used to shoot down Soviet planes in Afghanistan.
The US has also shipped hundreds of “Switchblade” drones, which are designed to be sent crashing into enemy targets before exploding.
While US defence officials have been reluctant to provide Ukraine with weapons that its forces weren’t already familiar with, this week Pentagon spokesman John Kirby confirmed that a “small number” of Ukrainian troops will be trained on how to use the Switchblades, as well as US-supplied artillery systems.
“We’re doing the best we can to focus on the kinds of capabilities we know they need and that they want and are using, and…secondary to that, to try to get them systems that they don’t need a lot of start-up time for, that they can put in the field almost immediately,” Mr Kirby said.
Additionally, the Pentagon said on Thursday that it is giving Ukraine “ghost drones” – similar in capabilities to the Switchblade – that Mr Kirby said were “rapidly developed by the Air Force in response specifically to Ukrainian requirements”.
The range and specific capabilities of the “ghost drones”, however, are not publicly known.
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