WASHINGTON, April 24. /TASS/. The United States has provided Ukraine with ATACMS tactical ballistic missiles at President Joe Biden’s direction without publicly announcing it, the Principal Deputy Spokesperson for the US Department of State, Vedant Patel, confirmed.

"I can confirm that the United States provided Ukraine with long-range ATACMS at the President's direction. He quietly directed his national security team to send ATACMS to Ukraine for use inside Ukrainian sovereign territory in February. They started moving as part of the military aid package we announced on March 12th. And those missiles arrived in Ukraine this month," Patel said.

Earlier, Reuters reported citing a US official that Washington had quietly shipped ATACMS tactical ballistic missiles to Ukraine, including them in the March military aid package.