Is U.S. giving Ukraine some weapons secretly?

Rumors are swirling around Washington that the United States has provided Ukraine with more weapons than the administration has announced publicly, Politico writes.

On Friday, a senior Pentagon official said the U.S. had been quietly supplying the Ukrainians with High-speed Anti-Radiation missiles for some time. “[W]hen we first announced the initial provision of HARM missiles, the way that we characterized it in the announcement was not specific. We described that we were providing a counter-radar capability,” the official said.

Two days later, Yahoo! News published a story that argued the U.S. has secretly sent the Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMS, to Ukraine. If true - and it’s not clear that it is - that would go against what the administration has said publicly. In July, national security adviser JAKE SULLIVAN told the Aspen Security Forum that sending those missiles would further provoke Russia and potentially instigate World War III.

Two people familiar with the move said the U.S. included Excalibur precision-guided munitions in the Aug. 19 weapons package, even though the administration didn’t publicly announce them. Furthermore, a document sent by the administration Friday to lawmakers, and seen by NatSec Daily, lists what was in the latest $775 million package, noting that what goes to Ukraine isn’t “limited” to what’s featured in the notification.

"We admit this is all speculation. No member of the administration confirmed or even hinted that there were secret shipments of weapons to Ukraine. Even if there were, there’s little to no chance they’d share a classified decision with us," the article reads.