To mark the sixth month of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the United States has released the latest package of military aid to Kiev, worth US$3 billion.
As a result, the total amount of weapons supplied to Volodymyr Zelensky’s government since the beginning of the war reaches US$ 13.5 billion (R$ 79.2 billion), fueling the Russian accusation that Washington and its NATO allies fight by proxy. , for fearing a Third World War in direct confrontation.
The US value alone, not counting smaller more billionaire aid from other countries, is equivalent to three times Ukraine’s 2021 military budget, estimated at US$ 4.6 billion (R$ 23.5 billion), in corrected values. And here we are talking about all defense expenditures, such as payment of personnel and funding, and not just equipment and assistance.
According to Pentagon press secretary, Air Force General Pat Ryder, the value will come from the Security Assistance Initiative for Ukraine. The mechanism predicts orders from industry, which has already been doing well in the war, and not directly from the surplus American arsenals, as has been happening until now.
This suggests a long-term commitment. There is no bet today on a quick solution, less than many more months of struggle. That’s because winter in the Northern Hemisphere is at hand, and it favors the Russian tactic of strengthening its positions in the east and south of the country.
There have been no significant changes on the front lines since June, which some attribute also to the start of the use of American precision artillery by Kiev. So far, 16 Himars systems have been delivered, 6 of which Russia says it destroyed.
He does not deliver the promised Ukrainian counteroffensive in the south, which increasingly appears to have been a piece of propaganda, but has caused problems for Russian supply lines in the Kherson region.
They are weapons for this phase of the war. At the beginning of the conflict, the supply of personal anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles ensured the Ukrainian resistance that made Moscow, in a daring attack that proved arrogant for using few reinforcements and many fronts, to give up on conquering Kiev in scare.
The US alone provided 1,400 Stinger portable anti-aircraft rockets and 8,500 Javelin anti-tank models, as well as 27,000 other less powerful weapons. Russia’s focus has shifted, most successfully, to Donbass (the east of Ukraine) and the bridge connecting the region across the country’s south to Crimea, annexed in 2014.
The new package promises six more Nasams short-range anti-aircraft systems (eight have already been delivered). Ammunition is also planned, with an additional 245,000 howitzers for the 126 M777 guns delivered and 65,000 120 mm mortars, in addition to 24 counter-artillery radars and a series of unmanned systems. They are weapons for the medium and long term.
Discounting the fact that armaments are in use and destroyed or spent, the assistance is turning the former Ukrainian army, equipped mostly with Soviet material, into a westernized force.
Before the war, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies (London), the country had 918 tanks and 2,568 armored vehicles of various types. In its balance sheet on Wednesday, Russia said it had destroyed 4,482 armored vehicles, without specifying the model.
As it is not known how many armored vehicles came from NATO in Eastern Europe and elsewhere, it is difficult to define how inflated the Russian numbers are. The US says it has given away 200 old M113 transport tanks, and Poland 200 T-72 tanks.
The same can be said of planes: Moscow says 268 shot down, but the pre-war Ukrainian inventory was 124, and there is no news of the supply of aircraft other than unmanned vehicles and 20 Russian Mi-17 helicopters. from the USA.
This is normal under the mists of war: even the death toll does not exist. Civilian estimates are subject to censorship in Ukraine, and military estimates are unreliable across the board. Moscow stopped reporting its data in April, Ukraine says 80,000 Russians have died and the rest of the West puts the number between 10,000 and 15,000. Kiev already admits 9,000 soldiers lost, which seems low given the violence of the conflict.
Before the war, the US had donated $2.5 billion ($12.7 billion, unadjusted) in aid to Ukrainians since 2014, when Vladimir Putin took over Crimea and started the civil war from pro-insurgents. Russia in Donbass.
