Ecuador Calls Off Arms Exchange With U.S. Over Plan To Send Weapons To Ukraine

Ecuador has canceled a plan to trade outdated Soviet weapons for new arms from the United States, President Daniel Noboa said on February 23 after learning that the old weapons would have been sent to Ukraine. Noboa, who is grappling with a sharply deteriorated security situation in the South American country, said in January that Washington would give his country $200 million of new weaponry in exchange for "junk" arms. But he told CNN that Ecuador “can't go ahead with it" after learning that the weapons would go to “the armed conflict in Ukraine, in which we do not want to take part."