million dollar military package for ukraine. quite literally the big guns. what do you think about that? it s great to hear about this package here, stephanie. but i will tell, you this package is vastly different than the packages that you ve seen going to ukraine previously. these are all offensively designed weapons which the ukrainians will need if they are going to fight in the donbas. i noticed when i look through some of the items, the mi-17 transport helicopter, that s a russian helicopter, it s primarily used for transportation, but you can put a gun system on that to fight. that will be critical for them because now, they are in the same predicament as the russians when it comes to their extended logistical rinds. they will be able to get logistics, and take they can put troops in that particular helicopter to get them to the point they need. also saw drones that will be very helpful going against tanks. particularly the artillery pieces, as you know, the russians love to
of a chemical attack. i also understand that the ambassador over here to the ukraine is trying to work out a deal directly with some arms dealers. american arms dealers to try to get more lethal more lethal unmanned aircraft in so type of drone. almost bypassing the u.s. government. you bring up a great point, brian. we know that the department of defense is meeting today with some american contractors to talk about the kind of weapons they can get in this country. we understand also from the pentagon that, quote: large number of the 100 drones are here. but this conversation over the mi-17 helicopters which are soviet era helicopters that ukrainians can fly, they are usually transport helicopters but they can be used as an attack helicopter as well and so many are asking the question now, if you are going to give
fly them. also less risk of them potentially posing a greater security risk if they fall into russian hands. but the united states has a limited supply of those. most of our mi-17s come from just having been leftover from the afghanistan war, basically. it is not clear exactly what was going to be drawn from or what the stores were they were going to use. to use c-drones and other sorts of drones, we also reported the ukrainian ambassador to the united states had direct conversations with the head of a firm that produces predator and repo drones. drones have been critical for helping ukraine gain some sort of over ground advantage in taking out russian targets. so have attack helicopters. obviously, it s been several weeks ukrainians have been asking for war planes, like migs, which we ve chosen not to create the three-way funneling chain that would be necessary to get to them. but this is the back and forth.
mi-17 helicopters which are attack helicopters. 11 of those are going in. we ll see where it goes from there. thanks, mark. so also breaking this hour, about to go to the white house and get their reaction to did you see this video of the bus of migrants that came from texas to washington d.c.? the president s back yard. s mor. aleve gives long-lasting freedom from pain, with fewer pills than tylenol. instead of taking pills every 4-6 hours, aleve works up to 12-hours so you can focus on what matters. aleve. less pills. more relief liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for whatchya. line? need. liberty biberty cut. liberty. are we married to mutual? only pay for what you need. liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. life can be a lot to handle. this magic moment
around this $750 million package. it seemed the centerpieces of it were really going to be the mi-17 helicopters, attack helicopters, that can let you take out certain russian targets. c-drones. overnight, a pentagon official came out and said, actually, no, there s not going to be mi-17s as part of the package. we had to update our reporting. so if you look at the stuff being shared in government circles, it gives you a sense of what they think the threats are likely going to be. they ll have to face it. also, a sense of, you know, the skiddishness about exactly what we re going to send and put into ukrainian hands for a variety of reasons. yeah. so what are the reasons why you wouldn t send helicopters? what do we know about what actually is being sent? well, we know there s going to be additional things like javelins, which have proven to be helpful for the ukrainians. the ukrainians have been raising a clamor for a long time for more air power. attack helicopters, mi-17s, are s