“The crucial moment has arrived.” New aid from the US

Washington is also allocating nearly two billion dollars in military aid to Ukraine. More than one billion will go to strengthening the security of Ukrainian neighbors.

US President Joe Biden has approved a new $675 million military aid package for Ukraine, Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin said at a meeting of the contact group on Ukraine at the Ramstein US military base. Later, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, who arrived in Ukraine on an unexpected visit, announced a new $2 billion military aid package for Ukraine and other countries threatened by Russia . Correspondent.net telling the details.

The United States sees APU success on the battlefield

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Thursday, September 8, that US President Joe Biden approved additional military aid to Ukraine in the amount of $675 million.

The announcement was made at a meeting with senior Allied officials at the US Ramstein Air Base in Germany to reaffirm their commitment to military support for Ukraine “in the long term.” This meeting in Ramstein is the fifth since the start of the full Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“This is the 20th shipment of equipment by the Biden administration from US stockpiles to Ukraine since August of last year,” Austin said.

According to him, this package includes howitzers, GMLRS precision-guided missiles, artillery ammunition, Humvee vehicles, armored ambulances, anti-tank systems and other means.

#Ukraine: Intense footage of mixed Foreign/Ukrainian units in action during a recent Ukrainian offensive, using large amounts of US-donated material; from M1151A1 HMMWV (Humvee) with mounted Browning M2 HMG, to M136A1 AT4-CS AT launchers.pic.twitter.com/uUWInP78Nx

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) September 8, 2022

Earlier, the Washington Post wrote that the new aid package includes, in particular, ammunition for HIMARS multiple launch rocket systems, military vehicles, equipment for soldiers and other equipment.

The head of the Pentagon stressed that “a very important moment has come in the war,” as the Armed Forces of Ukraine launched a counter-offensive. Austin also said allied military support for Ukraine is paying off. “We are seeing a clear victory in our efforts on the battlefield,” said the US Secretary of Defense.

The Pentagon has published a list of weapons to be given to Ukraine as part of a $675 million military aid package:

• additional ammunition for HIMARS

• four 105 mm howitzers and 36,000 105 mm artillery shells

• additional high-velocity anti-radar missiles (HARM)

• 100 Armored High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles (HMMWV)

• 1.5 million small arms rounds

• more than 5000 anti-tank systems

• 1,000 155mm remote anti-armor mine (RAAM) rounds

• additional grenade launchers and small arms

• 50 infantry fighting vehicles

• night vision devices and other field equipment

Washington is focused on Ukrainian success

Later, on September 8, it became known that US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken arrived in Kyiv on an unannounced visit. During the visit, he announced his intention to provide an additional $2.2 billion in long-term investment in foreign military funding to strengthen the security of Ukraine and its neighbors.

Of this amount, about one billion dollars will be allocated to Ukraine; the remaining funds will be distributed to Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.

“The defenders of Ukraine continue to fight bravely for their country’s freedom, and President Biden has made it clear that we will support the people of Ukraine as long as necessary,” Blinken said.

These announcements will bring total US military aid to Ukraine since the beginning of the Biden administration to approximately $15.2 billion.

“We are focused on helping Ukraine win this war, and we are providing security assistance so that when we come to the day when we move to negotiations, Ukraine will be in the strongest position,” the US Secretary of State in Kyiv stressed .

15 billion in military aid

In late August, the Pentagon announced the largest military aid package for Ukraine since the start of the war, worth nearly $3 billion. The funds were provided under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), which allows the Biden administration to purchase weapons from the military industry instead of taking them from existing weapons stockpiles.

The previous day, CNN reported that the Pentagon is preparing a plan to support the Ukrainian army in the medium and long term, including after the war with Russia. According to CNN sources, the US Department of Defense is developing a plan with the Ukrainian side.

The review is expected to be completed in the coming months, after which it will be sent to President Joe Biden for approval. The plan, among other things, will present a roadmap for the optimal development of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the opinion of Washington.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports that the Pentagon has secretly sent Excalibur GPS-guided precision artillery shells to Ukraine. It can hit a target with an accuracy of up to two meters.

The other day, a video appeared on the network, showing that the Armed Forces of Ukraine are already using Excalibur.

#Ukraine: Ukrainian artillerymen firing two US-supplied M982 Excalibur 155mm guided extended-range projectiles (made in 2011) from an M777A2 howitzer.
We will also see projectiles programmed with the Enhanced Portable Inductive Artillery Fuze Setter (EPIAFS). pic.twitter.com/0sPXZ1nubI

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) September 7, 2022

What does Zaluzny think about Western aid?

Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valery Zaluzhny and First Deputy Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence Mikhail Zabrodsky released an article the other day, in which they described some thoughts on how the war in Russia can develop.

“The only way to radically change the situation is to launch several successive, and in the ideal case, simultaneous counterattacks by the Armed Forces of Ukraine in 2023,” the article said.

To do this, Ukraine needs to increase not only the number of weapons, but also their range, as well as their quality.

“The preparation of an offensive campaign requires the creation of one or more operational-strategic groupings consisting of 10 to 20 combined-arms brigades … This can only be done by replacing the basic types of weapons with modern supplied by Ukraine’s partners, and obtaining additional missiles and ammunition from them, artillery systems, missile systems, electronic warfare equipment and others,” the article said.

It was noted that the most significant difference between the Ukrainian and Russian weapons is the maximum range of the weapons.

“If for the RF Armed Forces it is up to two thousand kilometers, taking into account the flight range of air-launched cruise missiles, then for the Armed Forces of Ukraine it is limited to 100 kilometers from the range of missiles and the depth of the launch positions of the obsolete OTRK … As long as this situation continues, this war can last for many years,” write Zaluzhny and Zabrodsky.

To change the situation, we need not only MGM-140B ATACMS Block 1A missiles for HIMARS, but also a joint strategy of re-equipping artillery, missile forces, tactical aviation and Navy of the Armed Forces of Ukraine .

“The discussion should be about the creation or development of capabilities, and not only about the amount of weapons and equipment for the brigades planned for re-equipment. Only in this case can we discuss the impact on the real center of gravity of the Russian Federation in this war,” the article said.

The operational and strategic outlook for 2023 for Ukraine, if the appropriate funds are received, will be very different than today. The mere presence of the threat of using long-range weapons by the Armed Forces of Ukraine will force Russia to look differently at the nature, course, and outcome of the war against Ukraine.

The article expresses the idea that two significant factors influence the decision-making, timing and amount of proceeds from the Western partners, the first is a false idea of ​​the scale of the war.

“Despite a sufficient amount of information, it is difficult for the modern generation, the world and the Europeans to imagine the reality of World War II-style battles,” the article said.

The second factor is the direct threat of the use of tactical nuclear weapons by the Russian invaders.

“The fighting on the territory of Ukraine has shown how much the Russian Federation neglects the issues of global nuclear security. We cannot completely exclude the possibility of direct participation of the world’s leading countries in a” limited “conflict with nuclear, behind which the prospect of a Third World War looms,” the article said.

The prospects for the 2023 military campaign must be considered in light of such a complex and ambiguous combination of factors.

“Only their full and comprehensive accounting will create the prerequisites for imposing a defeat on the armed forces of the aggressor country in Ukraine and ending the destructive war within Europe,” Zaluzhny and Zabrodsky concluded in the article.

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