The Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security and Defense is preparing a bill that will allow the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine to be directly an importer of weapons from the United States.

"A very important factor is the possibility of cooperation between the Ministry of Defense directly with the Pentagon and the U.S. Department of State on the supply of military equipment, weapons and dual-use goods," Ivan Vinnyk, a member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security and Defense (Petro Poroshenko Bloc) said in Kyiv on Monday at a meeting of the conciliation council of the parliament.

He said that in connection with this, in pursuance of the decision of the National Security and Defense Council, "we will introduce a bill that will allow the Ministry of Defense to directly import equipment and weapons from the U.S. bypassing special exporters, because this to some extent creates obstacles for effective work."