WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – Reports emerged late in November that the Ukrainian military decried "secondhand" equipment supplied by the United States as part of its $250 million non-lethal military aid to the country. These included up to 30-year-old Humvees and decade-old bulletproof vests.
"Maybe the quickest stuff that could have been provided might have been some older equipment, I don’t know," Hodges told a Defense Department briefing late Wednesday, clarifying that the range of other equipment was "brand new."
Hodges, who said more than $250 million of equipment has been delivered to Ukraine, asserted that Kiev "knew what [it was] getting," which he argued "counts for something."
"You try to do the best you can as fast as you can to get what you can upon request," he stressed.
A 2016 defense budget bill signed into law by US President Barack Obama late last month provides Ukraine with $300 million in military assistance.
