(Image by NEIVANMADE)
Last night in the comments there was a lively discussion about whether the US will provide any more aid to Ukraine, I want to come back to a point I’ve made repeatedly. Specifically, that the Biden administration should have locked in long term aid via legislation while the Democrats had majorities in both chambers prior to the 2022 midterm elections. In 2016, the Obama administration entered into a 10 year $38 billion Memorandum of Understanding to provide Israel $3.8 billion per year in military aid, requiring it be spent on US made weapons and munitions, and preventing Israel from going around the agreement to seek additional aid from Congress. Congress then appropriated the funding, which is why notwithstanding Leahy Amendment violations, the bulk of US military aid to Israel is locked in for at least two more years regardless of who controls Congress. Pursuing a legislative strategy that provided Ukraine with a steady stream of funding and material in order to ensure that Ukraine can win – win means to inflict sufficient pain on Russia that it seeks to negotiate a settlement that will favor Ukraine and on Ukraine’s terms – would have been a better approach than what has happened.
Especially because it is going to take longer to deliver a lot of the aid to Ukraine.
"One American official said most of the larger weapons that were financed by the new U.S. aid, and even some of the ammunition, would be shipped from the United States and most likely not be delivered until well into the summer" https://t.co/rlcakqJ39l
— Shashank Joshi (@shashj) May 3, 2024
The New York Times has the details via the Wayback Machine due to the paywall:
Last Sunday, as Russia put pressure on Ukrainian forces across a 600-mile front line, Ukraine received a shipment of anti-armor rockets, missiles and badly needed 155-millimeter artillery shells. It was the first installment from the $61 billion in military aid that President Biden approved just four days earlier.
A second batch of those weapons and ammunition arrived on Monday. And a fresh supply of Patriot interceptor missiles from Spain arrived in Poland on Tuesday. They would be at the Ukrainian front soon, a senior Spanish official said.
The push is on to move weapons to a depleted Ukrainian army that is back on its heels and desperate for aid. Over the last week, a flurry of planes, trains and trucks have arrived at NATO depots in Europe carrying ammunition and smaller weapon systems to be shipped across Ukraine’s borders.
“Now we need to move fast, and we are,” Mr. Biden said on April 24 when he signed the bill approving the aid. He added, “I’m making sure the shipments start right away.”
But it may prove difficult for Mr. Biden and other NATO allies to maintain the urgency. Weapons pledged by the United States, Britain and Germany — all of which have announced major new military support over the last three weeks — could take months to arrive in numbers substantial enough to bolster Ukraine’s defenses on the battlefield, officials said.
That has raised questions about Ukraine’s ability to hold off the Russian attacks that have had Kyiv at a disadvantage for several months.
Yet there is little time for Ukraine to lose against a steady Russian advance.
Avril D. Haines, the director of U.S. national intelligence, told Congress on Thursday that Russia could potentially break through some Ukrainian front lines in parts of the country’s east. A widely anticipated Russian offensive this month or next only adds to the sense of gravity.
“The Russian army is now trying to take advantage of the situation while we are waiting for deliveries from our partners, primarily the United States,” President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said on Monday at a news conference in Kyiv with the NATO secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg.
He noted that “some deliveries have already been done” but added, “I will only say that we haven’t gotten all we need to equip our brigades.”
More at the link.
Here is President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump.
War for Ukraine Day 801: Shaheds Over Kharkiv!Post + Comments (29)