The United States has provided Ukraine with a new military assistance package worth about $2.5 billion, the Pentagon press service said.

"The Department of Defense announces the approval of a presidential security assistance package to meet Ukraine's critical security and defense needs," the press release reads.

This aid package, worth up to $2.5 billion, providing for the allocation of funds to Ukraine from the reserves of the Department of Defense, is the 30th in a row since August 2021 approved by the Biden administration.

The new package includes 59 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles and 590 missiles for the TOW ATGMs installed on them, as well as 90 Stryker armored personnel carriers.

As the Pentagon explained, together with the previously delivered 50 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, this amount of assistance "will provide Ukraine with the opportunity to supply two brigades with armored vehicles."

In addition, under the new tranche, Washington will transfer to Kyiv eight Avenger air defense systems, ammunition for NASAMS anti-aircraft missile systems and HIMARS multiple launch rocket systems, HARM anti-radar missiles, 53 MRAP-class armored vehicles, 350 HMMWV armored vehicles, 20,000 artillery shells of 155 mm caliber and 95 thousand 105-mm shells.

The new package also provides for the transfer to Kyiv of about 600 precision-guided munitions of 155 mm caliber, 11.8 thousand 120-mm mortar shells, Claymore anti-personnel mines, more than 3 million ammunition for small arms, and about 2 thousand anti-tank missiles.

Information about the new deliveries of equipment to the Kyiv regime was made public against the backdrop of a meeting of representatives of Western countries at the Ramstein airbase, which discusses military assistance to Ukraine.

Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin, speaking at this event, said that support for Kyiv will continue for as long as necessary.

Without tanks and ballistic missiles

It is worth noting that the next package of military assistance did not include operational-tactical ballistic missiles of the ATACMS family, the range of which exceeds 300 km.

As Politico reported at the end of December, President Volodymyr Zelensky, during a visit to Washington, asked to supply these shells, but was refused.

  • Loading shells for shipment to Ukraine

  • AP

  • © Alex Brandon

In addition, the White House has not yet agreed with its NATO partners on sending Western tanks to Ukraine, which the Kyiv regime also insists on.

This fact was dissatisfied in the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives of the US Congress.

Its chairman, Republican Michael McCall, called the decision by the administration of President Joe Biden "cowardly."

“I am extremely disappointed that the Biden and Scholz governments continue to refuse to provide Ukraine with longer-range ATACMS and Western Leopard 2 tanks. Whenever, due to fears of escalation from Russia, the administration (Biden. -

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) postpones deliveries to Ukraine critical weapons systems, whether it be (MANPADS. -

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) Stinger, HIMARS or Bradley, she turns out to be categorically and completely wrong.

On the contrary, these cowardly decisions, based on misguided fears of an escalation of tension, are prolonging the conflict, ”the committee’s website quotes McCall as saying.

A similar point of view was expressed by Republican Senator Lindsey Graham.

He urged the White House to send M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine in order to encourage Berlin to start deliveries of its Leopard tracked vehicles.

American political scientist Mikhail Sinelnikov-Orishak admits that the United States may not be in a hurry to supply tanks and long-range missile systems, since Washington believes that the necessary conditions for this have not yet developed on the battlefield.

“This is an offensive weapon.

Perhaps while the Americans believe that the time has not yet come for the Ukrainian forces to advance.

In addition, the West needs additional time to train the soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, because putting weapons in inept hands means losing them, ”the expert said in a conversation with RT.

A somewhat different point of view is shared by Konstantin Blokhin, a researcher at the Center for Security Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

He believes that the White House is trying to keep the escalation of the conflict within the established framework, and therefore does not supply the Kyiv regime with everything that it requires.

“Biden is trying, on the one hand, to prevent the defeat of Ukraine, and on the other, not to allow the conflict to go beyond its borders, towards NATO.

And large-scale deliveries of certain types of weapons to Ukraine can just lead to this.

Therefore, Ukraine receives, say, not 30 Patriot air defense systems, but only a few units.

Still, in the West they fear a direct military clash with Russia, ”the analyst explained in an interview with RT. 

"Grey zone"

This is the second package of military aid that the United States has provided to Ukraine since the beginning of the year.

On January 6, Washington announced the transfer of military equipment worth $3 billion to Kyiv. The list of supplied equipment then included 50 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, 55 MRAP armored vehicles, 100 M113 armored personnel carriers, 138 HMMWV armored vehicles, 18 self-propelled howitzers of 155 mm caliber, 36 towed howitzers of 105 mm caliber, as well as ammunition, including guided artillery shells, and other equipment.

  • ATACMS missile launch

  • Legion Media

  • © USArmy

According to US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, Western countries are adapting their military assistance to the Ukrainian authorities and are determined that Kyiv will try to succeed on the battlefield.

“Looking at the trajectory – from Stinger to Javelin, HIMARS, Bradley combat vehicles to Patriot batteries – we are consistently delivering what Ukraine needs.

And we do this in a way that takes into account the real situation on the battlefield and its predicted development ... The bottom line is that we are determined to ensure that Ukraine has everything it needs to succeed on the battlefield, ”said the head State Department on January 17 at a joint press conference with British Foreign Secretary James Cleverley.

According to Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov, Washington unleashed a "total hybrid war against Russia" on its own territory.

This point of view is shared by Konstantin Blokhin.

“Indeed, this is a hybrid war.

Ukraine is a gray area where Russia and the West collide.

This has long been discussed in the expert community,” the analyst stated.

In turn, Pavel Feldman, candidate of political sciences, associate professor at the Academy of Labor and Social Relations, believes that the wording “hybrid war” in relation to US actions is too diplomatic.

“This is no longer just a hybrid war, but a real war waged by the West.

This conflict can be called a hybrid only because, along with real battles, clashes also unfold in the Internet space, the economy and other areas.

But in general, for example, if the Ukrainian army is completely transferred to NATO equipment, then this means that the entire collective West is already against Russia in a military confrontation, ”said the interlocutor of RT.

New level of conflict

Analysts believe that the increased intensity of arms supplies from the United States only confirms Washington's desire to achieve the strategic defeat of Moscow.

“But I think that all these deliveries (especially the Bradley IFVs, as well as possible tank deliveries) are doomed to failure.

This is an area in which you should not mess with Russia, since we are a tank superpower.

In addition, they cannot understand in any way that for Russia the issue of Ukraine is a matter of survival.

And for them, Ukraine is just an instrument of pressure on Russia, a hotbed of tension at our borders, ”Konstantin Blokhin emphasized.

  • Pentagon

  • Gettyimages.ru

  • © Glowimages

At the same time, Pavel Feldman noted that Washington has expanded the range of tasks that Kyiv must perform during the current conflict.

“The West is trying not only to support Ukraine so that it can defend itself, but also to give it weapons with which it can go on to counter-offensive actions against Russian troops and return the territories of the DPR, LPR, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, as well as Crimea.

This takes the conflict to a new level,” the expert said.

In his opinion, the training of the units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine by the West is becoming systemic.

“The West will prepare the Ukrainian army for a counteroffensive.

Apparently, now this process is becoming systemic.

If earlier Kyiv envoys smashed the heads of the reception rooms of high Western politicians, begging for the supply of offensive weapons, now we see that Ukraine is beginning to regularly supply equipment of various types.

In the future, we can talk about helicopters and airplanes.

Obviously, the West is betting on escalation,” Feldman concluded.