The Trump administration has approved the $39 million sale of defensive lethal weapons to Ukraine, according to two U.S. officials and another source familiar with the plan.
U.S. arms sales to Ukraine have become embroiled in a controversy over President Donald Trump's dealings with Ukraine, after the White House ordered nearly $400 million in military assistance to Ukraine to be withheld and Ukraine's new president raised arms sales with Trump on a controversial July 25 call.
The sale of Javelins is not part of the nearly $400 million of military assistance that the White House had ordered the State Department and Pentagon to withhold a week before Trump's call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. That aid, which has since been released, included assistance for maritime security, special operations units, secure communications and light weapons like sniper rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers.
"I would like you to do us a favor though," Trump responded, asking Zelenskiy to work with his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani to investigate Crowdstrike -- an apparent reference to what has repeatedly been described as a debunked conspiracy around the 2016 presidential election that posits that the Democratic National Convention's server, which was hacked by Russian intelligence, is missing and in Ukraine.
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