 U.S. seeks Russian military equipment in South America for transfer to Ukraine. Nine countries in South America possess Russian military equipment, which the U.S. could potentially transfer to Ukraine according to Laura Richardson, commander of U.S. Southern Command. According to her, nine countries in South America have Russian military equipment. The U.S. proposes to exchange this equipment for use in Ukraine and replace it with American equipment, which is much better than Russian-made equipment. The American general did not name the countries in question, but Argentina, Guyana, Venezuela, and Haiti are mentioned in the text. There is also information that Uruguay, Ecuador, Cuba, and Nicaragua have Soviet equipment in their armed forces. Argentina has transferred two multi-purpose MI-171E helicopters to Ukraine, which were previously purchased in Russia. Also in January of last year, Laura Richardson already stated that the U.S. was seeking Soviet weapons in Central and Southern American countries. Recently, Greece has also reportedly decided to arm Ukraine with Soviet origin S-300, surface-to-air missile systems. The military transfer, according to reports, could eventually include other Soviet-origin military equipment, including prototypes of the Z-U-232 anti-aircraft gun and the TAR and OSSA short-range mobile air defense systems. The Pentagon documents that were leaked in February last year revealed that the stockpiles of missiles for Ukraine's S-300 and Buk-Sams were expected to be completely depleted by early May. Although a predecessor of the highly advanced Russian S-400, this missile system is still deemed capable of countering ballistic and cruise missiles. The several variants of the S-300 deployed in the current battle have co-played as Ukraine's primary armor and an indelible part of its layered missile defense system against Russian attacks. According to local reports in the Greek media, the country approved the delivery of S-300s only after the U.S. approved the sale of F-35A stealth fighters to Athens, establishing a direct link between the two decisions. The U.S. approved the sale of 40 F-35 aircraft to Greece, estimated to cost $8.6 billion.