According to the Pentagon, since the start of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine, the United States has provided about $3.4 billion in “security” assistance to Kyiv. While the total amount of American military support for Ukraine since the Joe Biden administration came to power has exceeded $4 billion. .
Washington is sending shells, ammunition, armored vehicles, drones, ammunition, howitzers, anti-tank systems and helicopters to Kyiv.
According to the 46th head of the White House, "in the past two months, the United States has supplied Ukraine with weapons and equipment in record time."
At the same time, the American side, by and large, turns a blind eye to how the Ukrainian authorities dispose of the weapons received, analysts interviewed by RT state, assuming that they are simply resold.
“Most likely, a significant part of these weapons and ammunition does not reach the combat zone, but ends up on black markets.
There is a risk that small arms and something like light missile weapons will subsequently be transported through gray channels to Europe following the Balkan example, ”explained Alexander Mikhailov, head of the Bureau of Military-Political Analysis, in a conversation with RT.
A similar point of view is shared by the Deputy Director of the Institute for Strategic Studies and Forecasts of the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia, a member of the Public Chamber of Russia Nikita Danyuk.
In an interview with RT, he noted that the implementation of such a scheme deals a reputational blow to both the United States and Ukraine, which the collective West has created the image of a fighter for Euro-Atlantic freedoms.
“And this image is now collapsing like a house of cards, because it is more interesting for Kyiv to trade in expensive weapons, putting it on stream than to doom them to destruction by the Russian military,” the analyst says.
In the fog of conflict
The validity of the assumptions of Russian experts is confirmed both by sources in the US Department of Defense and by American military analysts.
“We have reliable information for a short time, but when it (a weapon. -
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) falls into the fog of conflict, we practically don’t have it.
It falls into a large black hole, and after a short period of time you have almost no idea where it is, ”one of the interlocutors of CNN, familiar with the intelligence of the United States, told CNN.
The task is not facilitated even by the presence of a serial number for such weapons as the Javelin anti-tank missile system (ATGM).
“I can’t tell you where they (weapons. -
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) are in Ukraine and whether Ukrainians are using them at the moment.
They don’t tell us about every projectile fired and who fired when and when,” a senior Pentagon official told reporters last week.
Therefore, regarding the relevance of the supply of any particular type of weapons, the White House is forced to rely on the information of the Ukrainian authorities.
“I want to emphasize once again: all our deliveries are fully coordinated with the Ukrainians, and they believe that these systems will help them in the battles in the Donbass.
Where and when to use them, as well as how, is up to them, of course, ”said John Kirby, a spokesman for the US Department of Defense, at a briefing on April 21.
Weapon make-up
Recall that on April 21, Joe Biden announced the next tranche of military assistance to Ukraine for a total of $800 million. The new package included 72 howitzers and the same number of tactical vehicles for towing them, 144,000 artillery shells and 121 Phoenix Ghost tactical drones.
At the same time, the White House recently authorized the provision of additional weapons and ammunition to Ukraine for the same amount.
Kyiv was promised 500 Javelin anti-tank systems, 300 Switchblade loitering shells, 200 armored personnel carriers, 18 155-mm howitzers with ammunition, 11 Mi-17 helicopters, ten anti-artillery radars and much more.
It is noteworthy that earlier Washington was less generous.
So, on April 6, Joe Biden instructed to allocate $100 million to Ukraine for defense funds and training, and on April 2, $300 million.
US military
© Charles Rosemond, Army/US Department of Defense
With the increase in arms shipments by the United States and its allies, the Russian Foreign Ministry warned that NATO military shipments to Ukraine would be considered a target.
“We tell the US representatives directly that the US-NATO weapons transports passing through Ukrainian territory, the Russian Armed Forces have the right to consider as legitimate military targets,” Sergey Koshelev, Deputy Director of the North America Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry, said on April 21 as part of a roundtable organized by the Diplomatic Academy table.
At the same time, as Russian President Vladimir Putin noted on March 16 at a meeting on measures of socio-economic support for the regions, the West only stimulates Kyiv by supplying weapons to continue the confrontation.
“It is also obvious to us that Western patrons are simply pushing the Kyiv authorities to continue the bloodshed.
They are being supplied with new batches of weapons, they are being supplied with intelligence, and other assistance is being provided, including the deployment of military advisers and mercenaries," Putin said.
"Meets the interests of Washington"
Experts, for their part, believe that the impossibility in the current realities to track how Ukrainians dispose of the supplied weapons may lead to the fact that it falls into “the wrong hands.”
“These weapons can be sold to the Middle East, Southeast Asia and end up with those people or groups to whom the United States, most likely, would not want to give them at all,” Danyuk said.
US military checks weapons before being sent to Ukraine
© Air Force Staff Sgt.
Marco A. Gomez/US Department of Defense
In turn, Alexander Mikhailov believes that the massive pumping of Ukraine with weapons "poses a threat to stability in Europe itself."
“A significant part of these weapons threatens to settle somewhere in Eastern Europe - in the Balkans, in Hungary, Romania, Poland.
And in the EU now there is a very criminogenic situation because of migrants and refugees from Africa, from the Middle East and from the same Ukraine.
Throw a few hundred thousand barrels there, and we will see a massacre in Europe of a racial or religious persuasion, ”explained Alexander Mikhailov.
The massive supply of ammunition to Ukraine creates a problem in the long term, since in addition to resale abroad, for the time being they can still be hidden in various caches, the expert believes.
However, he did not rule out that the United States might even be interested in such a development of events to some extent.
“Because the weakening of European sovereignty and the economy is in the interests of Washington, which wants to completely subjugate Europe,” Mikhailov concluded.