US increases military aid to Ukraine

• Direct Ukraine-Russia War

The United States continues its military aid to Ukraine despite the Russian invasion and plans to increase it.

This has been confirmed by the State Department to EL MUNDO.

"Our assistance to Ukraine has arrived and will continue to arrive [to that country] in all areas, including security, humanitarian, and economic aspects," said that spokesman, who added that "

and its people, and we're working with Congress to get it done.

Joe Biden has today authorized the delivery of weapons worth another 350 million dollars (311 million euros) to Ukraine.

In addition, the president of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, supports a bill to deliver to the Government of Kiev 600 million dollars (532 million euros) more in military material.

What has not been clarified is how this team arrives in Ukraine.

The country's Black Sea coast is under a Russian naval blockade, and using the airspace, while apparently not fully controlled by Russia, is highly dangerous.

Another possibility is the transport of weapons through the NATO countries bordering Ukraine: Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania, and Hungary (the government of the latter country, led by Viktor Orban, blocked NATO collaboration with Ukraine in January). Ukraine so that country could defend itself against Russian cyberattacks).

The weapons the US is supplying are mainly

and

man-portable anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles , respectively.

The first were already used successfully between 1986 and 1992 by the Afghan mujahideen who were fighting Soviet soldiers and the communists of that country.

Their effectiveness, however, is limited against high-flying aircraft, so they are used against helicopters or low-flying craft.

transport planes

, with which Moscow moves its airborne forces, because of the armor they have.

The

and the British-Swedish

they appear to have been effective in slowing down Russian armored columns, but their short range means they are only effective in close quarters combat in populated or forested areas.

Intelligence Support

One area that is not reported but where there appears to be very high coordination between the US and Ukraine is in intelligence.

about the movements of Russian forces, both in Ukraine and in Russia and Belarus, as well as their attack plans.

That strategy nullifies the surprise factor of Russian offensives, and forces Putin's soldiers to resort to much slower communication systems that cannot be intercepted.

The US also knows how many of the Russian units operate because they have fought in Syria, where there are also US soldiers.

In the US, some have lamented that the Joe Biden administration has not given Ukraine

anti-aircraft and

anti-ship missiles , with which Kiev could challenge Russia's overwhelming air and naval dominance.

The authorities of that country, however, maintain that the

and the

require training, so the Ukrainians would not have been able to use them.

"Frustration"

The surge in deliveries of US arms and equipment to Ukraine comes as US intelligence says the Kremlin may be preparing for an escalation of the war due to its "frustration" about the progress of military operations.

.

It has not used strategic bombers, such as the Tu-95

or the Tu-22

, which would be invulnerable to Ukraine's air defense forces, which are very poorly equipped.

It has also made limited use of its armor and artillery and has avoided bombing cities.

The fact that it was an air force, which is about 20 times larger than the Ukrainian one, does not have absolute control of the airspace, has no logical explanation.

But it's not just moderation.

After a rapid advance from Crimea, which Putin annexed in 2014, Russian progress in southern Ukraine appears to have stalled.

From the northeast, his forces do not appear to have advanced beyond the outskirts of Kharkov, Ukraine's second largest city.

And, surprisingly, there has been no major offensive from the West, where the two independent republics of Donbas created by Moscow as a platform for the invasion are located.

That strategy has surprised Washington.

Although Russia has never stood out for the speed of its operations or for its logistical capacity to move material and soldiers, its slowness is inexplicable.

Added to that is the fact that Moscow is not rampaging through Ukraine as it usually does when it invades a country.

Usually, Moscow has zero respect for

civilian life and infrastructure, as the inhabitants of Afghanistan, Chechnya, and Syria well know, where the USSR, first, and Russia, later, have carried out large-scale wars.

There are fears in the US that if Putin launches a direct attack on Kiev, the city will become not what Sarajevo was during the 1992-1995 Bosnian civil war, but another Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, which was reduced to rubble by the Russians in 1997 and in 2000. On the second of those occasions, Vladimir Putin was already president of Russia.

Conforms to The Trust Project criteria

Know more

• United States

• Ukraine

• War Ukraine Russia

• HBPR

Ukraine-Russia warEurope will respond with the biggest sanctions in its history

InvasionWhy war broke out between Russia and Ukraine: chronology of the conflict

War in Ukraine Macron, the mediator humiliated by Putin, warns: "The war returned to Europe. And it will last"

See links of interest

• Last News

• Translator

• Work calendar 2022

• Zenit Saint Petersburg - Barca

• Milan - Udinese

• TSG Hoffenheim - VfB Stuttgart

• Levante - Elche

• Almeria - Fuenlabrada