The United States is able to end hostilities on Ukrainian territory by stopping sending weapons to the Kiev regime, said Russian Ambassador to Washington Anatoly Antonov. However, the American side continues to rely on a military solution to the Ukrainian crisis, he said.
"The pursued tasks to exhaust and bleed Russia, to further incite the fraternal people against us, do not change. This hides Washington's fears of preventing the consolidation of the successes of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation," the diplomat stressed.
Thus, he commented on the allocation of another $200 million military aid package to Ukraine announced by the Pentagon, which included AIM-9M missiles for air defense systems, ammunition, including for HIMARS, anti-tank missiles, as well as anti-drone equipment.
However, according to Antonov, the new tranche will not solve the tasks set by Washington for Kiev.
"The counteroffensive has failed. The Kiev regime is breathing down its neck. Western supplies only postpone the prospect of ending the bloodshed," the Russian diplomat said.
It is worth noting that earlier, on October 11, the coordinator for strategic communications at the White House National Security Council, John Kirby, during a briefing, was forced to admit that the United States is "almost at the limit of its capabilities" in the issue of financing Ukraine.
"Today we announced (an aid package in the amount of. — RT) $200 million, and we will try to provide this assistance for as long as possible, but... It will not be endless," he said.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova commented on Kirby's statement on her Telegram channel.
"In short: Ukraine, the rope, the end," the diplomat wrote.
Recall that on September 30, both houses of the US Congress approved the country's interim budget, which did not include provisions to support Ukraine - a group of representatives of the Republican Party did not agree with them. At the same time, further sponsorship of the Kiev regime may be complicated by the protracted procedure for electing a new speaker of the US House of Representatives to replace Republican Kevin McCarthy, Western media write. In turn, as The Wall Street Journal reported on October 2, the Pentagon has $5.2 billion left at its disposal to provide assistance to Kyiv, which was allocated a year ago.
- HIMARS
- globallookpress.com
- © Sgt. John Schoebel
Partner's Help
Earlier, on October 11, a meeting of the contact group on the defense of Ukraine in the Ramstein format was held in Brussels, which, in addition to the United States, was attended by about 50 of their allies and partners, including Ukraine and NATO countries. After this meeting, Austin said that Germany, Spain, Sweden, Bulgaria, France and the United Kingdom are ready to help Kyiv with weapons.
Germany will donate another Patriot system and additional missiles as part of a $1.1 billion aid package that includes ten more Leopard A1 tanks, two more IRIS-T air defense systems; Spain will continue to carry out its critical mission of training (specialists to work with the air defense system. — RT) Hawk and donate additional Hawk vehicles; Sweden has approved a $200 million aid package that includes critical artillery ammunition; Bulgaria will donate the components Ukraine needs to strengthen its S-300 air defense systems," Austin said.
- Ramstein Meeting
- © president.gov.ua
In addition, according to the head of the Pentagon, France has pledged to provide more CAESAR self-propelled guns and speed up the process of their production.
The head of the US Department of Defense also thanked his colleagues and official representatives of the countries present at the meeting, which, according to him, "almost every month" are engaged in organizing "collective support" for Ukraine.
As Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov told reporters after the meeting in the Ramstein format, Western partners promised the Kiev regime military assistance in the amount of about $500 million.
"On the residual principle"
As military expert Yuri Knutov noted in a comment to RT, against the backdrop of Washington's problems with the allocation of funds to the Kiev regime, the United States decided to shift the responsibility for the transfer of additional weapons to its allies from Europe.
"In the absence of the speaker in the lower house of Congress, the United States does not have the opportunity to approve a document that would contain provisions on military assistance to Ukraine. Therefore, Washington has so far shifted the provision of weapons to Kiev to its allies, who, however, have directly said that they do not have the ability to supply them in the volumes that the Kiev regime requests. According to the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, the United States is indispensable in terms of supporting Ukraine," the analyst said in an interview with RT.
The Kiev regime exists only thanks to weapons supplied by the American authorities, NATO countries and other states of the "anti-Russian coalition," Knutov recalled.
"For quite a long time, the West has been transferring tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, armored personnel carriers, and self-propelled artillery units to the Kyiv regime. Now the stake is mainly on ammunition, including cluster munitions, since the Ukrainian army is experiencing a shortage of shells in a number of sectors of the front. As for heavy weapons, the West apparently wants military equipment to be sent for repair and re-transferred to Kyiv," the expert believes.
At the same time, the filling of military aid packages of a number of Western countries, which Austin announced, is "largely obsolete weapons," Knutov stated.
"For example, Spain promised to supply the Hawk complex, but this equipment dates back to the 1th century, which cannot be combined with modern anti-aircraft missile systems. The Hawk is ineffective against Russian cruise missiles. Germany has also announced that it will supply Leopard A2 tanks, but these are very weak vehicles. The Germans themselves have an advertisement where the Leopard 1 shoots at the Leopard A2 as a target, and the Leopard 1 shell punches a hole in the hull of the Leopard A<>, and through it. The Germans are simply getting rid of old armored vehicles. And few people care that the Armed Forces of Ukraine will be easily destroyed in such equipment," the analyst said.
As for the IRIS air defense system, which Germany promised, Knutov called it "focal" and capable of "covering only one or two objects" in Ukraine.
Moreover, in the current situation, there is a "split" in the NATO bloc due to the different positions of the countries regarding the need to allocate military assistance to the Ukrainian authorities, Knutov believes.
- Deliveries of German weapons to Ukraine
- globallookpress.com
- © Philipp Schulze
"For example, Hungary opposes arms trenches. In Slovakia, both the president and the party that won there also spoke out against the supply of weapons to the Kiev regime. Although I would not say loudly that the West is already abandoning Ukraine. But a significant decline in U.S. support would come if an even larger conflict between Israel and its neighbors erupted in the Middle East than it is now. And then the United States will be forced to transfer the main resources to help Tel Aviv, since it is a priority for them over Kyiv, which will get weapons only on a residual basis," the expert said.
At the same time, according to Americanist, Doctor of Political Sciences Rafael Ordukhanyan, the United States has the erroneous impression that they will be able to provide full-fledged assistance to both Israel and Ukraine at the same time.
"Even before the crisis in the Middle East, it was clear that the U.S. budget would not be able to withstand this. Therefore, in this situation, we are well aware that all US statements that they will support both Kiev and Tel Aviv with weapons are exclusively populist in nature," the analyst said in a comment to RT.
According to Ordukhanyan, the United States does not have such military-technical capabilities to be equally involved in two conflicts: in the Middle East and Ukraine.
"For this, the American industry does not produce enough ammunition and other weapons. And it will have to rebuild for a long time," the expert concluded.