Ukrainian officials are clearly looking to flex their muscles in the wake of being the foreign policy centerpiece of the Trump impeachment, accusing the US of holding up another $30 million worth of standard arms sales for an unknown reason. This sale is distinct from the issue in the impeachment, and only has in common the countries involved.
During impeachment, US officials were hyping the vital importance of Ukraine to US policies, particularly to the policy of hostility toward Russia. That not being sufficiently pro-Ukraine was being presented as an impeachable offense has clearly gone to Ukraine’s head, however.
A $30 million commercial sale of arms is hardly the sort of thing officials get particularly vocal about. Three current Ukrainian officials were describing the matter to the press, however, and a former US official concurred on the matter. Ukraine made a down-payment on the arms, but they haven’t finalized the sale yet.
As a practical matter, President Trump has yet to approve the sales, officials are still not clear why, and Ukrainian officials are very keen to get a refund for the down payment, as one US official said they’d probably be better off buying from someone else.
What’s really going on, however, is that Ukraine is trying to parlay their newfound importance into some beneficial resolution. They are likely particularly interested in presenting a “held” sale as tantamount to frozen aid, and again the sort of slight against Ukraine that could become a vital US policy issue, even if it is just a small matter over minor arms sales.
How sustainable this is for Ukraine is anyone’s guess, but the sense of entitlement and of indispensability in anti-Russia policy could evaporate in an instant, and it’s hardly unusual for the US to change its mind who they really “need” in a long-term policy effort.
Why is Washington and Trump funding these fascists anyway?
Arms sale? How is bankrupt, dysfunctional Ukraine supposed to pay for all those weapons?
No doubt the U.S. government can arrange financing. The U.S. taxpayers are generous and would no doubt guarantee the loan.
Zelenskii’s in a tough spot. He has neo-nazis to the right of him and Putin demanding that he adhere to the Minsk Protocols to the left. Plus, he has all the cards stacked against him with the Ukrainian economy being as dysfunctional as it is. Any attempt to appease Russia will be met with the Azov Battalion rising up against him as they have infiltrated both the army and the police forces in Ukraine.
Why the US has allied themselves with this tar baby of a nation is something you’ll have to ask Hillary Clinton and Victoria Nuland about. Most likely it fits into their anti-Russian thingy which has absolutely no chance of succeeding as Russia is well on its way to shaking off western imposed sanctions and joining with the Chinese in the new Belt and Road Initiative which will unite almost 70 nations in a mutually beneficial trading zone that will bring to an end US dollar tyranny and our plundering of Eurasia’s resources. Zelensky would be wise to give the US the finger and join in on the action, but of course he won’t.
The US should not be selling weapons to anyone for any reason, much less be the #1 arms merchant in the world to obscenely repressive regimes.
“as one US official said they’d probably be better off buying from someone else.”
BINGO! Like Turkey, they might buy from Russia, which has good defenses!!!!
Too late. That excuse ship already docked at DC port.
They should be cut off completely (not like these arms packages make any difference anyways), and we should tell Russia to have at them.
They don’t get it. They will. Payback is a b*tch.
Arms? That isn’t the half of it. They will be thrown to the wolves, meaning Putin. They can kiss their state goodbye.
For readers who don’t want to see Trump empowered to do payback, that isn’t the point. The events are what they are. He can, and he will. We don’t have to like it, just understand events for what they are.