On Tuesday, Mr McCaul told POLITICO that the US will send 100 Switchblade drones to Ukraine as part of the Biden administration’s new $800 million weapons package. The inclusion of the “tactical” kamikaze drones, which crash into their targets, represents a new phase of weaponry being sent to Ukraine by the US, which so far has shipped mostly anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons.
An administration official confirmed McCaul’s account that the US is sending the Switchblade.
However, the Republican accused the US President for acting “too little, too late” while Russia continues to invade Ukraine.
He said: “Last November, we had a weapons package that the president held up until right before the invasion and it seems like we had to wait till after the invasion to start bringing weapons in.
“It was ludicrous. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin is saying ‘It’s really hard to get these weapons in now because Russia’s in there’. Why weren’t we doing this last November?
“He [Zelensky] could have been fully armed before the invasion happened. This administration really failed in that.”
Mr Biden recently announced an additional $800 million in security assistance to Ukraine, bringing the total US security assistance committed to Ukraine to $1billion in just the past week, and a total of $2billion since the start of the Biden Administration.
The assistance will take the form of direct transfers of equipment from the Department of Defense to the Ukrainian military to help them defend their country against Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified invasion.
At least 30 countries have provided security assistance to Ukraine since the Russian invasion began.
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“But it’s almost like too little too late. Imagine if Zelensky had these things before the invasion, both the deterrents and the ability to wipe out Russia from Day 1.
“Having said that, [Putin’s] lost 7,000 Russian soldiers in 20 days. To put that into perspective, that’s more than we lost in 20 years in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“The death toll on their part and the body bags, I think, are gonna playback not very well for Mr Putin.”