Reuters reports unnamed officials in the Biden administration say a new $1 billion weapons package is waiting for the president’s signature. The next arms transfer will be the 18th since Russia invaded Ukraine in February.
President Joe Biden will use the Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA) to fund the security assistance package. In May, Congress placed billions into the PDA, allowing the White House to send Kiev increasingly sophisticated weapons with little oversight. According to the Department of Defense, the new package will bring the total military aid for Kiev to nearly $10 billion.
While the details of the new aid package have yet to be finalized, it is expected to include more long-range rockets and air defense ammunition. The US has shipped 16 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) to Ukraine. A Ukrainian official recently said the US was consulted about an attack on Russian forces using the long-range rocket system.
Moscow claims that Washington’s assistance for Kiev now amounts to direct war between the two countries. Igor Konashenkov, a spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry, said, "Washington is directly involved in the conflict in Ukraine."
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has repeatedly warned the transfer of HIMARS to Ukraine will cause Moscow to take more territory.
The White House has not commented on the package. The anonymous officials speaking with Reuters said National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) and as many as 50 M113 armored medical transports will likely be included as well.
Kyle Anzalone is the opinion editor of Antiwar.com, news editor of the Libertarian Institute, and co-host of Conflicts of Interest.
I’m shocked, shocked…
Our so called “leaders” are bottom of the barrel.
They are looking up at it…
They have to start somewhere…
Our so-called leaders are errand boys for Lockheed, Boeing, etc. etc. … and they get a small piece of the action themselves and get to strut around looking serious.
See the term Kakistocracy.
It is clear that the US is ramping DOWN the supply of weapons to Ukraine, as is the EU. It is becoming clear even to the morons in Washington that Ukraine has zero chance of surviving this war. They still have to send a “billion here and a billion there” (as Everett Dirksen once said) for PR purposes to show they’re “doing something to support Ukraine”, but it is clear that the enthusiasm is waning as the situation becomes increasingly grim for the remaining Ukrainian forces. With massive losses of somewhere between 190,000 and double that and some Ukrainian troops having one AK-47 between any given two soldiers, and ninety percent of their NCOs and officers killed, the end is quickly approaching.
The Russians, as someone pointed out over at MoA, are using an “N+1” threat strategy. They threaten two or more places in eastern Ukraine, knowing Ukraine no longer has the forces to defend them all. Once Ukraine chooses one, by sending 60% of its artillery from Donbass to the Kherson region, Russia attacks the now weakened Donbass line. The Seversk-Bakhmut line is being cracked now, and the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk line will be next. After which there is nothing between Russian forces and Dnieper River.
you described the strategy of the Russian Defense Ministry in Ukraine, let me add a little tactics.
you are mistaken when you write that there is nothing between Kramatorsk and the Dnieper (Dnepropetrovsk, as it will soon be called). this territory is also densely populated like Italy or Spain. yes, there are no large settlements there, but this entire territory is covered with small villages between which 3-5 km. yes, there are no such fortified positions as in Avdiivka, but a couple of weeks are enough to dig trenches and scatter mines. this will not stop the Russian army, but this does not allow for deep breakthroughs because they will be associated with heavy losses and a constant threat to communications. therefore, the Russian Defense Ministry relied on the destruction of enemy manpower and armor with artillery directly along the front and in the depths of Ukraine, with a slow push through the defense. that is, fortified positions are fired upon by artillery, then reconnaissance checks enemy activity in positions, if activity is low, then assault groups take a position, if activity is high, then artillery processing continues. sudden movements should be expected only if possible
the principle “more than 50 do not gather” is also being implemented. reconnaissance from drones, using satellite images and intelligence data, tracks the concentrations of Ukrainian troops and strikes at them. this prevents the Ukrainian army from organizing at least some semblance of an offensive. Since May, Kyiv has been trying to go on the offensive against Kherson, but any attempts to cross the Ingulets River end the same way. as soon as the Ukrainians concentrate 50 or more people and some equipment in one place, the artillery of the Russian Federation works out for this group.
as it was rightly written in the comment above “Ukraine will run out of people before weapons”, but I hope that idiots who are ready to die will run out earlier so that Zelensky can get a few more million from arms smuggling.
PS
I have for you one secret of the special operation;) in Ukraine there is such a city Balakliya. this city has the largest ammunition depot in ukraine. the city is controlled by the Russian troops, but it is practically on the front line within the reach of not only the MLRS but even the D-30 howitzers. but for some reason this city and warehouses are not shelled. I have not yet found an explanation for this strange fact. maybe you have a version.
Glad to see congress is doing a heck of a job when it comes to oversight of the children and lunatics of the Biden crime syndicate.
Ukraine will run out of people before they run out of weapons.
A horrible truth. A policy of murder and mayham. A policy of sociopaths.
I’m tired of hearing MSM “…reports unnamed officials in the Biden administration…” Why are they “unnamed?” Why not just come out and say “Jake Sullivan” for example? Just spit it out. Is this an attempt to conceal that we’re provoking and are actually at war with Russia? Is it working? Did anyone here feel Jake Sullivan for example “unprovoked” Russia?
Here is the highlights of a leaked Ukrainian report;
– The AFU are only at 43-48% strength
– medical workers at their limit
– small arms and armor are not enough
– 191 thousand soldiers were killed and wounded
– there is not enough hydraulics and liquid nitrogen for M777 howitzers
– no one cares about the missing – there are no statistics
– the equipment transferred by the West is running out
– western weapons are operated by amateurs, since there are no qualified specialists
– no way to repair weapons on the spot due to the lack of spares and specialists – everything is sent to Poland.
In summary the US is destroying Ukraine from within.
“In summary the US is destroying Ukraine from within.”
Absolutely.
It’s just a neverending spending blackhole at this point, please talk and end this war instead of turning into another unwinnable swamp. (and please don’t start another war with China in the meantime)
For 1 Billion dollars we should be able to buy Ukraine and give them the weapons as a present… Total military aide is 10 Billion bucks?! Crikey!
That money could be applied to improving infrastructure in the U.S.
I need a new pair of fuzzy slippers to warm my feet, I wonder if the Gov. might chip in?…
I need someone to help with the grocery bill , Donna, since it includes a number of nonhuman family members as well.
And every other dime that leaves this country.
Or left in the hands of the people that earned it by producing goods and services.
Our leaders want Russia to take more territory because drawing them back out of the Donbass is the only way to lure them back into the quicksand of regime change.
You need to explain this.
During phase one of the American proxy war in Ukraine, Russia attempted to force Zelensky into concessions by launching attacks on the center of the country. Putin’s MO was basically kick out NATO or we’ll take you out. This failed miserably because Putin found himself leading an occupying force in a nation hostile to being invaded by anyone. His first month in Ukraine was a disaster for the same reason Iraq and Vietnam were disasters. Conquest guarantees failure. Putin finally got the message and stuck to liberating the Donbass like he should have to begin with. This is when the war turned in his favor because it put Putin in the position to combat Zelensky’s own conquest against ethnic Russians. Drawing Putin out of the Donbass equals drawing Putin back to conquest which equals a return to the violent quagmire he wisely escaped in Kiev. This is the the HIMARS plot. My advice is TLC’s advice. Don’t go chasing waterfalls, stick to the rivers and the lakes that your used to.
a very strange decision because “quicksand of regime change” cause panic in Kyiv but not in Moscow. it seems to Zelensky it is already obvious that the liberated regions will hold referendums and join Russia.
Today Zelensky said that if a referendum is held in the Kherson region, then there will be no peace talks, but no one in Moscow was interested or scared.
Zelensky is becoming the real world version of the Black Knight in “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”; continuing to goad Russia, and continuing to lose limbs in the process, but never changing his attitude.
ha ha ha 🤣 great comparison😂👍
but the Ukrainian black knight, except for his arms and legs, will definitely be blown off his head.
Oh, joy.
Another billion that won’t help house the homeless.
Another billion that won’t help struggling families feed their children.
Another billion that won’t help victims of natural disasters such as that which recently occurred in Kentucky.
Another billion that won’t help the elderly afford their medications.
Another billion that won’t be used to improve education.
Have I said enough? I could go on…
On the other hand, Russia thanks ByeDone for sending more easy targets.
The Western World has no leadership or strong individuals able to hold the Military Industrial Complex in check!
Sad that the only politicians in power now are kleptocrats.
Peace in a multipolar world means the US must be financially or physically obliterated. Perhaps UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has read between the lines with Agenda 2030 being moved ahead to NOW.
Peace in a multipolar world means the US must be financially or physically obliterated. Perhaps UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has read between the lines with Agenda 2030 being moved ahead to NOW.
Kleptocracy sucks!
You are correct, it is corruption incarnate!
So this is what “supporters of Ukraine ” do?? Ensure thousands more deaths in a battle the Russians have always been sure to win. The lies told to the Uke authorities and the constant supply of weapons and money in a lost cause is destroying any hope of the survival of Ukraine. Mass murdering West, pretending to enforce freedom, democracy.
https://ria.ru/20220807/ukraina-1807843122.html
Russian Armed Forces Destroyed an Arsenal with 45,000 Tons of NATO Ammunition in Ukraine.
Astounding, if true. They did destroy three ammunition depots and perhaps that’s where this number comes in.
this is just the tip of the iceberg. want to see the whole iceberg? read the daily reports of the RF Ministry of Defense on the conduct of the special operation. the fact is that these 45,000 tons of destroyed ammunition is not some kind of special achievement. for the Russian army, this is a success, but quite ordinary. something like this happens every day. every day 3-5 ammunition depots are destroyed, every day strikes are made on the places of temporary deployment of Ukrainian troops and 100-300 nationalists and 30-70 pieces of equipment are destroyed, every day a counter-battery fight is carried out, as a result of which 7-20 platoons of MLRS and artillery are affected. normal daily work.
But of course, no discussion of how the failure of much of this gear to actually reach the fighting front in Ukraine should be addressed. The response seems to be, “Make CBS STOP reporting troublesome facts that gets Zelensky mad” and “Just send more stuff”.
And, 50 M113 ambulances??? WTF For?? As If Ukraine doesn’t have near 50 times that number of MTLB tracked carriers, plus many locally built versions being “donated” by NATO, useable for that purpose.
The ONLY reason to send that crap is because the US wants the M113s out of their inventory so they can replace with new generation carriers.
So, a “WIN” for the US MICC (yes, 2 “C”s is correct, I’m reverting to Eisenhower’s original Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex); we dump 40 year old depot queens, for which we charge an over-inflated value (instead of their scrap value) and then turn around and order brand new AMPV replacements, at many times the cost of the M113s, to make BAE Sytems (and their pocket Congresspeople) happy. Sometimes this country just Sux.
Depressing.
So we can expect 700 million to actually reach the soldiers fighting as Zelinski’s goons and Hunter Biden skim the rest?
That’s $1bn more weapons going to al Quada or whatever new Middle East terrorists there are this week. Those weapons sure as hell won’t make it to Ukraine. Every general in Ukraine knows it has lost the war, so none of them want to throw away good weapons on the remnants of the Ukrainian military. Biden should be tried for treason, along with every neocon in DC.
On August 2, the Russian Defense Ministry accused the United States of being directly involved in the conflict in Ukraine.
The remains of a US-made AGM-88 HARM (High-speed Anti-radiation Missile) have been found by Russian forces. AGM-88 is a tactical air-launched anti-radiation missile designed to home in on transmissions coming from air defense radar systems.
The maximum launch range of the newer variants of the AGM-88 is said to be up to 150 kilometers, which would imply it had to be launched from within Kiev regime-controlled airspace. No aircraft in the Kiev regime forces’ inventory is known to be capable of deploying the missile.
Moscow has accused NATO of being directly involved in Ukraine war.
Well, that’s kind of strange. How can NATO be directly involved in a war that Moscow insists is not taking place — in fact, sends Russians to prison for claiming is taking place?
The SMO has morphed into a larger operation, And as our crimes against humanity continue it will keep morphing into a larger operation. It is NATO escalating the situation, ie Bio Warfare, Nazi’s, nuclear terrorism, massive corruption. etc etc etc its time we were taken to the Hague for our crimes against humanity.
“in fact, sends Russians to prison for claiming is taking place?” We would need some actual evidence. not just WMD’s in Iraq accusations. Russia Russia Russia right? Right now in the West we go to jail for saying ant1 narrative things, you do understand what projection is right?
BTW the accusation is that the evidence they found on the ground in Ukraine indicates that the only possible way this weapon could of been used in Ukraine is if NATO fired it in Ukraine.
Yes, I understand that dissidents are also punished in “the West.”
Which is why I don’t consider e.g. the US regime any better than the Russian regime.
Or any worse.
Napoleon, “The world suffers a lot. Not because the violence of bad people. But because of the silence of the good people.”
There is a huge difference. I will not defend the indefensible. We, the Golden Billion, are supreme international criminals.
It is not going to end well. The only viable way forward is to arrest all our western leaders and present them to the Hague. There is no other future for us average people.
You can continue to excuse our crimes, to blame everyone else for the crimes we commit. This is what Stalin referred to as “Useful Idiots” They allowed the death of millions.
The Nazi’s are currently shelling a nuclear facility using the weapons we supplied and using targetting information we supply. This is criminal insanity beyond belief. This is nuclear terrorism. They also found Bio Weapons in Ukraine, Bio terrorism.
But hey Russia Russia Russia right?
I don’t “excuse our crimes.”
I just don’t pretend that other regimes are any less criminal.
For example, I don’t support the US regime supporting “rebels” in, and then invading, Syria, any more than I support the Russian regime supporting “rebels” in, and then invading, Ukraine. And I don’t pretend that the Assad or Zelenskyy regimes are “legitimate” either.
Neither do I tap-dance about the Palestinians, or the Ukrainians, using “human shields” because there happen to be civilians in the way when the Israelis, or the Russians, attack. Nor, more to the point, do I condemn the practice in one case while excusing it in the other or vice versa.
Adult children of alcohols bitterly ignore those who point out that their parent is abusing alcohol, while their parent continues to drink themselves to death. This is the usefulness of idiots, the silence of the good people.
I use Stalin and Napoleon references for a reason.
The Kiev regime continues to commit acts of terrorism in areas over which it has lost control. In recent days, Ukrainian forces have shelled nuclear facilities in the Zaporozhye region several times.
The insane criminals in Ukraine and US are shelling a nuclear power facility. Great to see the Nazi’s in Kiev are putting the HIMARS to good use. Its time to arrest them all and send them to the Hague.