The US State Department has confirmed that the Army Tactical Missile System, known as ATACMS, was sent to Ukraine “earlier this month,” even before Congress approved a new aid package for Kyiv on Tuesday.

The shipment was made “at the direct request of the President” Joe Biden in February, State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said, adding that the missiles, which were part of the last aid package sent to Ukraine on March 12, “arrived in Ukraine earlier this month.”

The inclusion of the missiles in that March package was not announced at the time “in order to maintain operational security for the Ukrainians, at their request,” the spokesperson said in Washington.

The new missiles have been sought by Ukraine for months, as they would roughly double the strike range — up to 300 kilometers (186 miles) — of a medium-range version of the weapon that the US sent in October, according to the AP.

The White House had already approved sending the ATACMS in early March, and the US has included a significant number of the weapons in previous military aid packages.

As a new US military aid package has been delayed, Ukraine has been forced to ration its weapons and faces an intensifying Russian offensive.

Ukraine has pleaded for the long-range systems, saying they would provide a crucial new capability to strike Russian targets farther away, allowing Ukrainian forces to stay out of range of Russian weapons.

The delivery of the missiles has been so closely held that members of Congress have been demanding in recent days that the US send the weapons, unaware that many were already in Ukraine.

For months, the US resisted sending the longer-range missiles to Ukraine, out of concern that Kyiv might use them to strike deep inside Russia, potentially escalating the conflict in eastern Europe.

That was a major reason the Pentagon sent the medium-range version, which has a range of about 100 miles (160 kilometers), in October.

Ukrainian officials have not publicly acknowledged receiving or using the longer-range ATACMS.

However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in a social media message Tuesday welcoming congressional approval of the new aid bill, referred to “long-range capabilities, artillery and air defense as extremely important tools for Ukraine to quickly restore fair peace.”

“The key now is speed,” Zelenskyy said, appealing for the equipment that Kyiv expects to receive in the coming weeks and months to arrive on the ground quickly.

Last year, the US administration warned Russia that if Moscow acquired and used long-range ballistic missiles in Ukraine, Washington would provide the same capability to Kyiv.

Russia has acquired some of those weapons from North Korea and used them on the battlefield in Ukraine, prompting the White House to greenlight the new, longer-range missiles.

Still, the US at the time declined to confirm that the longer-range missiles had been delivered to Ukraine until they had actually been used on the battlefield and Kyiv’s leaders approved of making it public.

[News updated at 20:15]

Read Also: Biden signs military aid package and delivery begins in the next few hours (Portuguese version)