US State Department confirms licensing ‘commercial export’ of lethal arms to Ukraine

The United States government has approved licenses for the commercial export of lethal weapons to Ukraine, but never directly sold or granted such weapons, a State Department official has confirmed to Sputnik. "The Department of State has licensed the commercial export of a limited number of small arms and light weapons to Ukraine from US manufacturers," the official said. "We have never had any policy that restricts such commercial sales. The United States reviews requests for sales and export license applications on a case by case basis and this one was no different." The Washington Post reported earlier that the State Department approved the sale of M107A1 sniper systems, ammunition and accessories worth some $41.5 million to Ukraine. Spokeswoman Heather Nauert pointed out that this was “nothing new,” because Washington allowed Kiev to buy weapons from US manufacturers “under the previous two administrations.”