On Thursday, Ukrainian Defense Minister Alexey Reznikov made a direct plea to Congress asking for the US to send anti-tank missiles and Stinger anti-aircraft missiles to help fight attacking Russian forces.
In a video posted to YouTube by Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA), Reznikov said Ukraine needs “as much Stinger and anti-tank weapons as possible.” He said the weapons could be delivered to Poland from where Ukraine can transport them over the border.
Since the 2014 US-backed coup in Kyiv, the US has given Ukraine over $2.7 billion in military aid. The Obama administration refused to send weapons to the Ukrainians, but the Trump administration took that step in 2017, and started supplying Kyiv with Javelin anti-tank missiles.
Pentagon officials have said that they would look for alternative ways to send Ukraine Javelins if Russia invaded. The weapons have previously been delivered by aircraft.
Recently, Lithuania shipped Stinger missiles to Ukraine, which was approved by Washington. The Stingers marked an escalation in NATO’s arming of Ukraine. The issue is one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s main points of contention with Kyiv, and although Ukraine is not a formal member, its alignment with the western military alliance is his main justification for his assault.
Earlier on Thursday, the Kremlin said it was willing to negotiate Ukraine’s surrender. Russia’s terms are that it wants Ukraine to declare neutrality and promise not to host weapons in its territory. So far, the Biden administration has refused to consider Putin’s demand for a promise that Ukraine would never join the military alliance.
Ukraine Defense Minister Pleads With US Congress to Send Missiles
No missiles for you!
This shows you how delusional the Ukrainian government is. Like Russia is going to allow the US and NATO to send any more weapons to Ukraine. It doesn’t matter how they try to ship them, Russia will intercept and destroy them. Don’t these people get it? In the video with Scott Ritter I watched tonight, he said the weapons that were already sent were in warehouses and they’ve been destroyed, which is probably true. No more assistance of any kind (other than maybe humanitarian) is going to come to Ukraine any more.
Ritter also mentioned something I’ve been saying – that it doesn’t matter if Ukraine never entered NATO if NATO treated Ukraine as a “partner” and continued to ship weapons to them, train the Ukraine military to NATO standards, and the like. That alone was a threat to Russia, however limited in the short term.
In the end the Ukraine will be in Russian hands, and the US/NATO military industries will have their nations’ taxpayer dollars in their hands. How much does a single Stinger missile cost? Who is going to step up as an individual and front the cost of that, knowing it may very well be destroyed before it’s even used? Better yet, for those aligned with the Ukraine, do you have your plane tickets already? When do you arrive in Poland so you can cross the border and actually DO something to get some skin in the game, if you’re so concerned? Or is this the US defending Ukraine to the last Ukrainian? As for sending weapons to potential partisan forces, remember we did that in Afghanistan and wow! that one came back to bite us in the a**.