On Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced $2 billion in new military aid for Ukraine as Russian forces continue to advance in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv oblast after launching a new offensive in the region this past Friday.
Blinken, who made the announcement in Kyiv, said the $2 billion is in the form of Foreign Military Financing, a State Department program that gives foreign governments money to purchase US weapons. The majority of the funds are being pulled from the $61 billion in new Ukraine aid recently authorized by Congress, although $400 million is coming from previously allocated funds.
Blinken would not detail the weapons that will be purchased with the $2 billion but said it would be spent in several different ways. “We put this together in a first-of-its-kind defense enterprise fund, and it has three components,” he said. “One is to provide weapons today, so this will assist Ukraine in acquiring those weapons.”
He said it would also be used to help build up Ukraine’s “defense industrial base” and “help Ukraine purchase military equipment from other countries, not just the United States, for Ukraine’s use.”
The new weapons package brings the total amount of US military aid announced since the $61 billion in spending on the proxy war was authorized to about $9 billion. Standing alongside Blinken, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba complained about “delays” in Western weapons shipments. “Every delay of supply results in setbacks on the front line. This is the general rule,” he said. “We appreciate the sincere commitment of the United States to compensate deliveries – delays in deliveries with new announcements and new deliveries.”
Blinken was asked if the US would allow Ukraine to use US-provided weapons to hit Russian territory, which risks a major escalation. Russia recently warned the UK that it could hit British military sites if Ukraine uses British-provided weapons in attacks that hit targets inside Russia.
Blinken claimed the US does not “encourage” or “enable” Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory but said it was ultimately a decision for Ukraine. “We have not encouraged or enabled strikes outside of Ukraine, but ultimately Ukraine has to make decisions for itself about how it’s going to conduct this war,” he said.
The new US military aid for Ukraine is not expected to help achieve victory but instead will just prolong the war. Russia’s push in Kharkiv is stretching Ukraine’s defensive lines thin, and they were already at risk of collapse. During Blinken’s visit to Ukraine, the Ukrainian military announced it was pulling back forces from some areas in Kharkiv, including Vovchansk, the largest village in the area where the fighting is focused.
“In some areas, around Lukyantsi and Vovchansk, in response to enemy fire and assaults from ground troops, and to save the lives of our servicemen and avoid losses, our units manoeuvered and moved to more advantageous positions,” the Ukrainian military said.
After 24 May Zelensky is a criminal usurper like Joey Biden.
So FJB and Blinker!
Of all the clown coverage: msm acting like fangirls over guitar playing. Serious journalism.
Just what one can expect from our top of the line journalists.
What’s another few billion taxpayer dollars? Why not just take the cash out on the White House lawn and burn it? Why waste time sending it to the Ukraine (which, if Biden and Co. hasn’t figured out yet, is going down day by day and picking up speed as the front collapses like a flan in a drafty cupboard).
“In some areas, around Lukyantsi and Vovchansk, in response to enemy fire and assaults from ground troops, and to save the lives of our servicemen and avoid losses, our units manoeuvered and moved to more advantageous positions,” the Ukrainian military said.
Wouldn’t it have been easier to say “retreat”?
Biden is running for a second term, Frank Luntz was their language teacher.
Our top “diplomat” once more doing “diplomacy”.
Annalena, the German trampoline girl pales next to him.
No Nation, Country, that opposes Genocide, opp0oses War Crimes, should allow this Abomination called Blinken, to set foot on their soil. He is a STAIN on our Republic, STAIN on the Human Race.
The entire upper echelon of America’s clot of advisors and officers all the way to the top are a stain on what used to pass for America’s honor.
That is true for all leading US/NATO nations.
True. I lived in Europe for 8 years, during a time when Germany and France has leaders who presented signs of life and the capacity of thought.
Now they have Dandy’s who gesture and smile like idiots for the media.
And JFK was assassinated, he was a promising president, open minded and growing in office. He had the potential to be a great president. He had something to say, he had excellent speechwriters. Did Biden, in all his decades in government, ever made a speech worth calling it a speech? And he never grew in government service.
Biden is, well, very – very – average.
Yes, very-very average is less than mediocre. He is a one man demolition squad with a wake of blood and tears .
That is how a Banana Republic is governed, the best government money can buy.
Nothing is going to change re US policy toward the rest of the world. While we’re sitting around commenting on our nation’s pursuit of global hegemony based on force and threats of force, the leech that is sucking the life’s blood out of America will continue to feast.
The American “experiment” in democracy and freedom has become the disease and we’re infecting the entire world with it.
I believe the same powers that gave us Trump and Biden gave the leading Europeans Macron, Sunak, and Scholz and others like Sweden and Finland. So much stupidity and treason is not a coincident.
Blinken: flushing our tax dollars down the toilet. Saw a US Veteran yesterday on the street. I bet he could use some of those tax dollars to put a shattered life back together. What do you think, Blinken, you little POS? How about your thoughts on Americans living in cardboard boxes?
Spare change, Blinken?
https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/sitrep-51424-putin-cleans-house-as
SITREP 5/14/24: Putin Cleans House as Volchansk Comes to the Brink
They’re arresting Russian bureaucrats for corruption? That’s undemocratic! They should elect them to public office, like in the Untied States!