The Biden administration approved the 25th round of security assistance for Ukraine on Friday. The latest package of weapons will include upgraded tanks and drones. Kiev recently requested more armored vehicles to push its offensive against Russian forces.
A Pentagon press release said it had purchased 45 refurbished T-72B tanks with advanced optics, communications, and armor. The Department of Defense claims the Netherlands will provide an additional 45 tanks and the Czech Republic will provide additional support, completing the upgrades.
Since the start of the war, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has requested NATO members send their tanks to Ukraine. In separate appeals, Kiev asked for NATO to transfer one percent of their tanks and for Western countries to give Ukraine 500 tanks. Washington and its partners did not fulfill Zelensky’s requests.
In September, the Washington Post reported that Kiev believed it was reaching the "tipping point" and more armored vehicles could help complete its victory. "Kiev believes the requested heavy armor – including battle tanks and personnel carriers – could help shift that turning point into a tipping point."
Germany rebuffed Ukraine when asked directly for tanks. "No country has delivered Western-built infantry fighting vehicles or main battle tanks so far. We have agreed with our partners that Germany will not take such action unilaterally," German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said.
The upgraded T-72B tanks the US and Netherlands are buying for Kiev are not NATO models but Soviet-era weapons. Poland and the Czech Republic have already sent Ukraine hundreds of these tanks. Still, Zelensky believes the tanks will aid Kiev’s offensive.
"I am thankful to [Joe Biden] and the people of the [US] for another $400 million military assistance package. For armored vehicles that will help us liberate Ukrainian land. We appreciate this continued support!" the Ukrainian president Tweeted Friday.
In addition to tanks, the 25th arms package includes 1,100 Phoenix Ghost Tactical Unmanned Aerial Systems, 40 Armored Riverine Boats, tactical secure communications systems and surveillance systems.
The $400 million package was paid for through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI). Most of the arms Biden provided Kiev has been authorized through the Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA). Under the PDA, the president can send a foreign army weapons from America’s own stockpiles. In contrast, the USAI uses funds to buy weapons for Kiev directly from companies or foreign governments.
The latest package also includes funding to send Ukraine weapons in the future. Some funds will be used to upgrade HAWK air defense missiles from American stockpiles before shipping them to Ukraine. The Pentagon also said it would upgrade and transfer 250 M1117A armored security vehicles to Kiev.
The Department of Defense claims it has provided Kiev with over $18 billion in weapons since Russia invaded Ukraine in February. Meanwhile, the Kiel Institute for the World Economy says US aid is $10 billion more than the Pentagon states. Through October 3, it calculates Americans have contributed nearly $28 billion to Kiev’s war effort.
Kyle Anzalone is the opinion editor of Antiwar.com, news editor of the Libertarian Institute, and co-host of Conflicts of Interest.
I wonder if it is cheaper to buy peace than it is to pay for more war…
Are you suggesting we bribe Russia to leave Ukraine?
more appropriate would be for uncle sam to leave ukraine and take his bioweapon labs with him
“We” You equate the Washington government with “us”. Talk about brainwashed.
I suggest we force Zelensky to leave Ukraine. Give him a free flight to his bank account in London so he can live off his bribes that made him sell out Ukraine’s land to China and BlackRock and others in 2021, causing his poll ratings to plummet. So he started killing the people in Donbass with more than 100 shellings a day and amassed an invasion army to slaughter them, to have something to brag about before the next election.
That’s the man you love.
Citation for 100 shellings a day please.
Almost certainly. So far if you believe the Ukrainians 70k Russians have been killed at a cost of about 30 billion. That is about 430k per dead Russian. If fewer than 70k have been killed the price is even higher.
I have to think there is a cheaper way to screw up the Russian army with $$ than just killing them. How about an all expense paid trip to Disney.
Yes, but then the American Military Offense Industry wouldn’t make their billions.
Peace Sells, But Who’s Buying
The only fuel Ukraine has for tanks is Diesel fuel stolen from American consumers.
They might as well pile those tanks up and burn them, along with the money. At least nobody will be inside.
Putin should commit all his forces and end this NATO proxy war , other wise they will try to bleed him into suing for peace .
I think you are absolutely right that if Putin does not want to be bled to sue for peace then he needed to commit overwhelming force.
The Americans are not trying to bleed the Russians for peace. They’re trying to bleed Russia dry so the Russian federation is extinguished. Then they’ll be able to move on to destroy the Chinese, North Korean, and Iranian states.
Afterwards there will be peace on earth and everybody will live in rich very happy democracies, as long as they all do as their American benefactors advise.
Fair point – seeing as I would suggest that the Russians would not sue for peace under the terms that are likely to be on offer the two may turn out to be about the same – that is if Putin stays in power.
I respectfully suggest that the Russians have an opt out though – but I also expect that they are unlikely to take it – i.e. that they are unlikely to withdraw to the 2013 borders. I also suggest that the US is very unlikely to destroy China – as they would be content to keep the Chinese out of Taiwan and not risk nuclear war with them.
I think you have tendencies veering toward pollyanna.
I think you have a tendency to run out of actual arguments – or do you wish to formulate where it is that you think I’m veering toward pollyanna?
Well, I’d rather run out than not have any at all 😉
Truth is I find the defenders of this clusterF*ck to be repulsive, and I have to go out of my way to stay on the surface with them, as there’s really nothing substantive to their arguments apart from cheerleading the US and trashing the Russians.
The part that gets to me is that the defenders of Ukraine as the injured party ignore thirty years of history, and I have no use for people who think that history started in February 2022.
No need to answer, as I only expressed my opinion of your posts and did not do so via any arguments.
I’m not defending the SMO – you are!
I have not been trashing the Russians at all – just pointed out the bad consequences of annexing territory from weaker neighbors. I challenge you to find any place where I cheer the US wars on foreign countries – because I can’t see that I have done this any place.
Again arguing with someone else than me – I agree that this escalated to a war in 2014 when Russia occupied Crimea – at the time Ukraine had few if any western weapons and no western trained troops.
So not only am I not ignoring the history I have pointed out to you that Russia (as well as the US and UK had signed the Budapest memorandum to respect Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty in 1994 – Russia broke that treaty in 2014 and what is your argument that they had a right to do so? So yes Ukraine is the victim!
No I have noticed that you do not use arguments a lot mostly just assertions – so please do not answer unless you have actual arguments and not just your opinion.
And weirdly the Russians seem to be going along with the plan.
Folks, the math doesn’t work out. Do you want me to believe that $400 M can buy/ship 90 tanks, 1,100 drones, 40 Armored Boats, tactical secure communications/surveillance systems, upgrade HAWK air defense missiles, upgrade and transfer 250 M1117A armored security vehicles? Does that make sense? Are we sending them toys? It also wouldn’t cover shipping costs for all that unless Amazon is shipping for free. (sarcasm) Figures lie and liars figure.
Dulce Et Decorum Est III & A Taste of Armageddon
(Or the Empire has no Clothes but a Disposition Matrix)
In due homage
to Horace, Owen & Mikhail
i humbly nod
for how sweet & glorious
it must be to kill or die
the old lie
for God & country
via pompous duty
asphyxiatingly-wrapped
within ersatz honor
bubbling babbling fools
gushing drooling
patriotic pride
so c’mon kiddies,
any up for good jingo sport?
who’s hungry & poor,
who wants to play
the hubris ‘anything for profit’ killing game?
As newspapers rah rah
pied piper patriotism
with journalistic integrity
star spangled objectivity ha ha!
as a new battle/fear lies just around the corner
& armed forces day just weeks away hooray!
rally loyal citizens
to whitewash warm innocuous blood
off disgraced musket & sullied polluted flag
strike up the marching parade
manifest destiny
down main street usa hurrah!
Awaken & open thine eyes
chauvinistic folk
come & see
xenophobic overseas deeds of nefarious brutality
You’re liable
for this appalling
tax-paid supported violence
exported to hamlets & villages
in lands you couldn’t find on a map
nor correctly pronounce
Assaulting families
who’ve never
did you any harm
clans you’ve never heard of
nor care less for
so step on up
one & all
Take a trip
to the overflowing morgues
filled with small smashed bodies
once toddlers
full of laughter & life
Deeply inhale
the rancid stench
of scorched flesh
crispy burnt
to a black bubbly mass
by phosphorus
Gaze into doll dead eyes
frozen forever
by shock & awe
renditioned
via your God blessed terror from above
Crumpled atop a cold gurney
a stiff finger of a tiny hand
amidst a mish-mosh of mangled flesh
bulls-eyed at you war supporters
Watch
as grief-stricken father’s
zombie-wander
in shattered silence
sifting through ragged debris
devastating destruction
searching
for lost sons
missing daughters
Discovering
ripped wet mangled body parts
strewn out as pieces of a human jig-saw puzzle
taking home
the ear, the hand, the foot
to be quietly buried
while 6000 miles away
blue-blooded heroes giggle and snicker
at a video screen
toe-tagging this crime against humanity
‘bugsplat’
Harken
to the heart-piercing shrieks
as soul-torn asunder mothers
wail like howling wild animals
as they find their loves buried
broken & bloody
in the rubble
of your glorious works
Then if you can
please explain
to the unresponsive moaning
neonatal orphan
why your armed forces
just murdered his parents
by accident
then wave a condolence payment
like juicy enticement in his face
Celebrate
as your special op-forces
silently efficiently & quickly
dig out bullets
from civilian bodies
to cover their tracks
from being at the wrong address
again
Declare as a national holiday
murdered women at a bridal shower
or when
4 kids are droned to smithereens
while tending sheep
rejoice
in exported evil exploits
as great american victories
for which your war crimes always are
Trust flim-flam,
the PR propaganda spin
from subjective mass media
obey leaders and church bosses
pay your taxes
which finances anglo-terrorism
through illegal & immoral aggressive violence
or listen to a blue rodeo
Raise your filthy faux flag
higher higher ever higher
to hover over the rising pile where the butchered lie
however
dear good christian citizens
no civic rag
could ever soar over
the sick slaying of the innocent
the accumulating abominations of flag-pledged atrocities
Appraise Fallujah
surrounded & caged
as the cowering cringing unarmed civilian inhabitants
are shot, burned & barbequed
like slaughtered sitting ducks
in a ‘free-fire zone’ shooting gallery
Ponder
upon your sanctimonious attack
at a school in Bajour
where 69 children are massacred by joystick
as you deceive yourself
into believing
it did not happen
washing your hands
turning as you walk away
This is Sand Creek
Wounded Knee
My Lai
Haditha
too many other mass-media
contorted & distorted great triumphs
To whit
no doubt in my mind
the next war crime called
a ‘battle’
or a ‘humanitarian bombing’
will be patriotically anointed too
sanctioned of course
by church state and school
the old lie
ta ta…
Hmm… Omg.
During the trench-warfare of WW1, the French leader Clemenceau wrote every day in his newspaper a reminder that France was NOT winning the war, namely “mais les boches sont toujours a Soissons” or “but the Krauts are still in Soissons”. Soissons is a town North of and close to Paris.
I paraphrase: “but the Russki’s are still in Mariupol and the Crimea.”
If my paraphrase means anything it means that some of our army, navy, and air force units will be needed to drive the Russians permanently out of Mariupol and the Crimea. Then the Russians will have to sign a for them devastating peace treaty in the Livadia Palace, Yalta on the Crimea, if that Palace and Yalta still stand above ground.
They’ll give Crimea up right after WWIII.
Hate to say it but we are already in WWIII.
ANewAtlas talked about this on YouTube. He is a former marine engineer, I believe, and very good at finding out the facts about all these weapons.
The T-72 is a Soviet tank from 1969. This is called “scraping the barrel”. After Russia’s overwhelming artillery and air superiority has destroyed the more modern tanks, the Pentagon has now bought some tanks from the middle of the Cold War to send.
And as ANewAtlas says, if these had made any difference you would have heard about it many times by now.