The Joe Biden administration will send $725 million in more weapons and other military equipment to Ukraine, the White House announced on Friday. The arms shipment is expected to contain munitions, including more rounds for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), and military vehicles but no new significant capabilities or counter air-defenses.
Russia’s wide scale bombings across the country have spurred NATO states to provide more weapons which will keep the war going. This brings the total U.S. military aid provided to Ukraine, since the war began, to $17.5 billion. So far, the US has pledged over $67 billion, in mostly military aid, to fund Ukraine during this war, that figure is greater than Russia’s entire 2021 military budget.
This is the first new arms package announced after Moscow began its major missile and air attacks against civilian infrastructure, including energy and communication systems. Moscow’s escalated air campaign came in response to increased Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory, including the truck bombing of the Kerch bridge which killed three people. The bridge connects Crimea to Russia. Although the US is reluctant to send long range weapons to Ukraine over concerns they could be used to attack Russian territory, both the State Department and the Pentagon have signed off on the attacks against Crimea as well as Russia’s newly annexed territories.
The new aid falls under the Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA) which allows Biden to send weapons directly from US military stockpiles without Congressional approval. This is the second PDA shipment during the 2023 fiscal year, it comes from the stop-gap funding bill which authorized $3.7 billion for the PDA and approximately $16 billion in total aid for Ukraine.
Russia now holds approximately 20% of Ukraine and threatens to expand the war as a result of Washington’s provision of longer-range weapons to Kiev such as the HIMARS. The US has sent 16 HIMARS to Kiev and recently approved the provision of an additional 18 launchers.
The new weapons aid is "not expected to include material to defeat missile attacks like the ones seen over the last week, it was designed to bolster Ukraine’s ability to beat back Russia in the counter offensive that has yielded large territorial gains in recent weeks," an official told Reuters. The Biden administration recently said they would expedite the delivery of National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS).
This announcement comes amid rising tensions over NATO’s proxy war and during a meeting of the alliance’s defense ministers. More arms shipments are being announced by European NATO members.
"The British government said last week it would provide missiles for advanced NASAM anti-aircraft systems that the Pentagon plans to send to Ukraine. Britain also is sending hundreds of drones and 18 howitzer artillery guns. Germany has sent the first of four promised IRIS-T air defense systems, France pledged more artillery, antiaircraft systems and missiles, the Netherlands said it would send missiles, and Canada is planning to send winter equipment, drone cameras and satellite communications," the Washington Post reported.
Biden has recently acknowledged that the war in Ukraine, escalated and prolonged by his policies, has brought the world close to nuclear "Armageddon." Turkey is attempting to arrange peace talks between the West and Russia. Moscow has publicly indicated interest, even entertaining talks between Putin and Biden, but both the White House and the State Department have dismissed the offers.
Connor Freeman is the assistant editor and a writer at the Libertarian Institute, primarily covering foreign policy. He is a co-host on the Conflicts of Interest podcast. His writing has been featured in media outlets such as Antiwar.com, Counterpunch, and the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity. He has also appeared on Liberty Weekly, Around the Empire, and Parallax Views. You can follow him on Twitter @FreemansMind96.
“White House Announces New $725 Million Arms Package for Ukraine”
Plus another $400 million of US taxpayers money for Elon Musk to provide internet for the Nazi Ukrainian army.
He already states he can’t guarantee internet.
There needs to be some limits to our generosity, don’t you think?…
This is about MIC profits coming back to Wash. campaigns.
That’s an awful lot of arms. Perhaps we could throw in some legs and a torso or two?… 🙂
Don’t worry. All the rest of the body parts will be forthcoming from Ukrainian young men, Russian young men and other victims of the globalists.
I know, I know…
It’s no different here in Italy. Recently the government approved 700 million euros to Ukraine. All the while, internally Rome burns!!
Israel and Ukraine are parasite, vampire states sucking the blood out of the American taxpayer. Bet Israel is really incensed that Ukraine is getting more than they are, but, I’m sure Wash. will make up for it, since they don’t want to lose all those AIPAC campaign funds for the next election. Both parties are evil, face it!
One of the side benefits for a Hegemon is its ability to manufacture its own histories and fantasies. A complete lack of accountability that can only be terminated by the guillotine.
Biden is mad with Palestinian Abbas because he likes Putin better than Biden. There will be consequences for Abbas, to be sure.
I am not kidding I read it somewhere today.
And, if Israel sends weapons to Ukraine, that’s the end of the Russian/Israel love affair as per Moscow. It’s in the news.
Here’s a hilarious scenario, Lily;
The United Snakes has so depleted their military stockpiles by sending weaponry to Ukrainazia that they can’t defend themselves when Mexico rightfully begins a war to win back the territory that was brazenly stolen from them! 😁
Remember Wash. intervened in WWI when the Kaiser offered weapons to Mexico City to take back the land they lost in the Mexican/American War. Most Americans aren’t taught that fact in school.
What can I say? Wouldn’t it be better to have spent this money on health care for American veterans?
Not in the eyes or brains of the cast in D.C.
How about health care for everyone? Or education? Or infastructure? Or housing? Or anything at all, really, that actually benefits all Americans?
Never. Ending. Black. Hole.
Stop the war funding now!
If the Biden team really views the war as a protracted stalemate, as has been reported, why isn’t it pushing for a settlement?
Follow the money, MIC and companies make sky high profits, they are stealing the oil in Iraq and Syria, why stop the goose that lays the golden egg.
Why deindustrialize Germany and with it the EU?
FOLLOW THE MONEY, Cui Bono? That explains it, war is big business.
So said Major General Smedley Butler. So it goes.
Here’s an interesting take:
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/us-signals-slowdown-high-end-munitions-deliveries-ukraine
I especially like this part:
Some on Capitol Hill are reading Austin’s remark differently that leads to largely the same result – that the Biden administration is purposefully slowing down the transfer of critical munitions to Ukraine, because it is increasingly worried about stumbling into a direct conflict with Russia.
A congressional aide with working knowledge of these issues told Fox News Digital that while officials are hinting at limited supplies, there is still room to give more, and that the slowdown is because of a different calculation the Biden administration is making.
“They are afraid of escalation,” this aide said.
Just last week, President Biden openly talked about the “Armageddon” scenario that could unfold if Russia tried to win the war with a tactical nuclear strike. The congressional aide interpreted Austin’s remarks as a sign the administration is more and more worried about crossing a line that might force that outcome.
Another sign of U.S. caution, the aide said, is that the administration allowed nearly $2.8 billion in authority to supply Ukraine with weapons to expire a few weeks ago, at the end of fiscal year 2022. Some on Capitol Hill are reading that as an indication that the administration is finding its own comfort level when it comes to arming Ukraine, and that level stops short of what Congress authorized.
“Congress gave the administration more than it wanted,” the aide said. The Defense Department declined to respond to questions from Fox News Digital about the expiration of this authority.
There is a related view within Congress that while U.S. stocks of certain munitions have clearly been reduced as the U.S. sends items to Ukraine, that reduction is not a security threat to the United States itself. The aide explained that many of these items were stockpiled largely for use in a possible conflict with Russia, and that conflict is already playing out with Ukraine in the lead.
That conflict is reducing Russia’s military capacity, which means a corresponding drop in U.S. inventories is not putting the U.S. anywhere near a stockpile crisis.
To put it another way: the Biden administration has more flexibility to give Ukraine more but is choosing not to.
The key is what is actually sent. And when. NOT what is “announced.” The 2.8 billion dollars in direct drawdown aid that expired was also “announced” at one time or another. More than once, most likely.
The US is running out of the “good stuff” to send to the Neo Nazi regime. OR, the US is just choosing not to send it, because of fear of the Russian response. OR, perhaps, for some other reason, such as that the US actually does want the Neo Nazi regime to begin negotiating. OR because the US realizes that the Neo Nazi regime is all bluster and PR, made for TV and social media, “victories,” but light on actual, strategic or even tactical success on the battlefield, and so why waste more of the “good stuff” on them? Who knows?