The Russian View: US Arms Kiev to Provoke Moscow
"Since 2014, Washington has allocated more than $2.5 billion to Kiev to support the Ukrainian armed forces"
Machine translated from Russian.
In the West, they constantly talk about “Russian aggression” against Ukraine, but at the same time it is Washington that supplies Kiev with more and more lethal weapons and arranges military exercises near the Russian borders. We are looking into why the United States is complicating the situation around the Ukrainian issue and what role Washington has assigned to Kiev in its confrontation with Moscow.
Last week, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba visited Washington, where he held talks with the head of the US Department of State Anthony Blinken. Following the meeting, the parties adopted a charter on bilateral “strategic partnership”.
A significant part of this document is assigned to Russia, which both Kiev and Washington accuse of aggression and provocations. As stated in the charter, the United States intends to maintain anti-Russian sanctions, as well as apply “other appropriate measures until the territorial integrity of Ukraine is restored” within its “internationally recognized borders.”
Expanding presence
Despite the condemnation of the “aggressive actions of Moscow”, since September the US and NATO have been stepping up their military cooperation with Kiev.
In September, Ukraine and the alliance countries held naval exercises in Odessa. In the same month, the Ukrainian-American Rapid Trident-2021 maneuvers with the participation of a record 6,000 military personnel took place in the Lviv region .
In October, Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin visited Ukraine, as well as Georgia and Romania. When meeting with the leaders of these countries, the head of the US Department of Defense each time reminded of the “Russian threat.” Soon after his departure, an unscheduled military exercise by US and NATO ships began in the Black Sea, which are taking place in close proximity to the Russian borders.
“The Black Sea zone remains largely in the hands of Russia, which poses a strategic threat to the US NATO allies Romania and Bulgaria, and which has already led to casualties and the loss of territories in Ukraine and Georgia,” a senior naval lieutenant writes in his column for The Hill USA Brian Harrington, who openly declares the need to squeeze Russia in the Black Sea.
These same steps Biden recently called on US lawmakers, Republican Mike Rogers and Mike Turner, having acted for the further arming of Ukraine and “the US military presence in the Black Sea.”
Arms supplies
Immediately after Kuleba returned from Washington, Ukraine received 80 tons of ammunition as part of American military assistance. The supply of weapons was approved by US President Joe Biden, who, on the eve of his September meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky, allocated $60 million in military aid to Ukraine. The package includes Javelin anti-tank missile systems, training by American instructors and “much more to help Ukraine better defend against Russian aggression.”
In March, the Biden administration agreed on military aid to Kiev for $125 million. The money went to the purchase of two Mark IV patrol boats and anti-artillery radars and tactical military equipment.
Ukraine will receive another $150 million in military aid from the United States when it makes “sufficient progress in key defense reforms.”
In total, since 2014, Washington has allocated more than $2.5 billion to Kiev to support the Ukrainian armed forces. In 2017 and 2018, the United States spent $350 million to “protect” Ukraine, in 2019 – $250 million, in 2020 – $300 million. In fiscal 2021, this figure could be $400 million.
“The US Department of Defense encourages Ukraine to continue to pursue reforms that strengthen civilian control of the military, promote transparency and accountability in the defense industry and procurement, and modernize its defense sector in other key areas in line with NATO principles and standards,” notes US Department of Defense.
Course towards NATO membership
The strengthening of military cooperation between the United States and Ukraine, in particular in the Black Sea region, is also mentioned in the charter signed by Blinken and Kuleba. In the same document, the US pledges to support Ukraine’s efforts to join NATO. This task remains a priority for the Zelenskiy administration, which the Ukrainian president also recalled at a meeting with Biden at the White House.
At the moment, Ukraine has already received the status of a NATO partner with expanded capabilities. At the same time, the alliance has not yet provided Kiev with an action plan to prepare for membership, which is the first step in the legal procedure for joining the organization. The alliance adopted a political statement that Ukraine will one day join NATO at the summit in Bucharest in April 2008. In February 2019, the Verkhovna Rada approved amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine, securing its aspiration to join the alliance.
However, the US is not yet ready to accept Ukraine into NATO. The same Biden openly stated that it is still very far from Kiev’s entry into the alliance. The White House reminds that the Ukrainian authorities know exactly what steps they need to take to achieve this goal.
Ukraine’s NATO membership remains a highly sensitive issue for Moscow. The Kremlin has repeatedly stated that such a scenario would violate the “red lines” and entail negative consequences.
Activity in the Ukrainian direction
The increase in contacts with Kiev, targeted military assistance, as well as exercises in the Black Sea clearly show that the Biden administration is stepping up work in the Ukrainian segment. Most likely, the United States will more actively use the Ukrainian factor as one of the levers of pressure on Russia.
In September, the US House Armed Services Committee called on the Pentagon to prepare a report on how to help Kiev close its air and missile defense gaps. This means even more weapons. Soon, Ukraine may receive a portable air defense Stinger or even an Iron Dome missile defense system to protect against short-range missiles. In addition, Kiev asked Washington to provide them with Harpoon anti-ship missiles.
“It would be logical to give Ukraine the same level of military and financial support provided to Afghanistan, as it is a viable state, ready to fight and having liberal-democratic values,” – said one of the councilors Zelensky newspaper The Financial Times.
“It’s time for Washington to realize that Ukraine needs tens of billions of dollars in aid if it wants to weather the Russian threat in the long run,” the adviser added.
The Biden administration’s approach to Ukraine is reminiscent of the behavior of the United States and its allies in the South China Sea, as well as Washington’s policy toward Taiwan. The Americans continue to build up an international grouping near the Chinese maritime borders and arm the Taiwanese military. Perhaps the Black Sea waters will soon become the new South China Sea, which remains one of the most militarized points on the map.
The US approach to containing Russia through assistance to Ukraine and containment of China through assistance to Taiwan is a consequence of the so-called foreign policy doctrine of Biden. It aims to rally the collective West under US leadership, as well as provide military and economic assistance to countries that aspire to the Western model. For this work, Washington enlists its allies who participate in joint military exercises and generally try to act as a united front.
If Ukraine proves its ability to carry out effective reforms and competently use the funds allocated to it, the country will receive more weapons and the military activity of the collective West in the Black Sea will only grow. In fact, this will only increase the number of provocations and lead to increased tensions.
At the same time, according to Bloomberg, in the event of an “aggressive” reaction from Moscow, Western leaders are already preparing a new package of sanctions and other ways to counter Russian policy.
Source: TASS
Here are some recent comments from Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov about the new multipolar global order:
https://viableopposition.blogspot.com/2021/10/russia-china-and-new-global-multipolar.html
Whether Washington likes it or not, the new global reality would appear to be putting an end to America’s dominance of world affairs.
Once again, NATO cannot accept countries for membership which have ongoing internal territorial disputes. Like Georgia, with its disputed provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Like Ukraine, with the DNR and LPR. That’s not a negotiating position, it is a hard no. Additionally, ALL the member states must agree on acceptance, which is partly based on that acceptance enhancing the collective security of the NATO alliance.
That part is more lofty posturing than reality – NATO accepted the Baltic countries for membership, and one of them had only one plane in flying condition in its ‘air force’ and that one was an unarmed trainer. But there is considerable resistance to Ukraine’s acceptance, for a couple of reasons. One, it is a very large and very poor country, whose biggest foreign investor is Russia by a wide margin. You do not have to be much of a financial analyst to forecast that if it became a member of NATO, Russia would pull out a lot of its investment, because foreign partners would probably buy up any valuable assets in Ukraine and Russia would have no interest in making them rich. Then the west would be expected to carry this large, poor, needy blubbering country, always looking for a handout at the same time around 70% of its GDP is directly controlled by its oligarchy. See much potential for reform there?
Two, there is a strong perception, not without foundation, that the United States would like to see Ukraine in NATO because it could be rapidly parlayed into a NATO Article 5 intervention, resulting in a hot land war with Russia which would be fought in Europe. In the American view, all the destruction and damage would be confined to Europe and Russia.
That probably would not be the case; for one reason, Russia has several strategic weapons which can easily reach American cities, especially if carried c loser by bombers and submarines. For another, China would probably not stand idly by while its principle source of energy was hammered into the ground like a tent peg. Even with American support, I don’t think NATO could beat Russia on its own, especially not when Russia would have no logistics train it needed to defend as it would be fighting from within its own borders. Not in its most fevered dreams could NATO – even with American support – take a military alliance of Russia and China. Russia and China are ranked no. 2 and 3 respectively by Global Firepower, and Europe does not even get on the scoreboard until 7th place.
https://www.globalfirepower.com/countries-listing.php
Quote:In the West, they constantly talk about “Russian aggression”??
Yupp.. Aggression is only done by Russia..
America is never ! Never doing any “aggression” ?? The are only bringing “Democracy & Freedom” & Liberating the women ? e.g. Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya,
So Big Bad Russkie !
Black market Arms, The US deals with black market arms from the same brokerage houses that supplied the Germans during world war II…The Bushs as well as others, and their cronies that own New York’s Bull on wall street… Anyone out there that has done the research knows who controls the IMF and World Banking underground… You can’t say it here, or you will be censored like you have a plague… Not that simple you might say??? Follow the money underground and the Church of Rome that smuggled high ranking Jesuit SS men out of Germany at wars end… The whole of anybody that is anybody in the House and Senate knows the lies that are being told the American people… The Elite’s that keep the front of misinformation and disinformation and all the distractions of propagated media propaganda covertly disseminated by the CIA, NSA, FBI and all the security services of every nation we are told are out enemies… This is just another distraction to separate us from out human sprits of like kind that are linked together as humanity. Along with the racist drama of communisms socialistic educational system… Who was it that said, we will bury you??? Not in the literal sense, but in the psychological matrix of those with he controls of what we think!!! Sooner or later, the brainwashing of daily lies become truth to the unsuspecting youth and coming generations that believe the lies that are seen as truth and visa versa… The last frontier of mental slavery is when all believe the lies and thusly they vote to keep those same devils in power and the good folk in poision… Many examples in history that represents the inquisitions of Roman church and leaders of the state… “ONE IN THE SAME”. Superstition… all myth is the franchise of the matrix that deludes the unaware.
Believing and chanting the prayer to behave by the came forces that create the evil men do! How can we save ourselves if we can’t the blind leading the blind and the dead burring the dead???? The cycle continues to this day and looking for the answers to change it all is buried with those that are killed to keep them quite!