(John McCann, Headline USA) Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin unveiled a fresh round of military aid for Ukraine following a meeting of over 50 countries at NATO headquarters in Brussels.
The latest assistance package is said to be worth $1 billion, with $350 million coming from the Pentagon’s existing stocks, reported Breitbart. The remaining $650 million in military arms will be provided by the $40 billion that Congress passed last month.
Austin has said that the military aid includes guided multiple launch rocket systems munitions, 18 more M777 howitzers and the tactical vehicles to tow them, and 36,000 rounds of 155mm ammunition.
He stated that these weapons “are key investments in Ukraine’s long-range fires capabilities, and they’ll be crucial to Ukraine’s efforts to repel Russia’s assault in the Donbas,” and promised that the group of nations “will stay focused on this for as long as it takes.”
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley said the weapons systems and the trained crews who use them would make it to the battlefield, “by the end of this month.”
America’s top general also provided the rationale for these aid efforts by declaring that “Ukraine is under threat. They are at war and we will continue to support them. But the rules based international order is also under threat due to the actions of Russia in the Ukraine.”
Since mid-April, the war in Ukraine has become focused in the eastern Donbas region. As Milley explained, “this fight down in the Donbas has been going on since 16 April, and the advances that the Russians have made have been very slow, a very tough slog, very severe battle of attrition, almost World-War-I-like, and the Russians have suffered a tremendous amount of casualties.”
Still, Russia has held the advantage in numbers and equipment.
This expensive aid to Ukraine has faced growing opposition on the Homefront. With inflation and gas prices rising, and a recession likely on the way, $40 billion to a far away land with a past of corruption strikes many as a fool’s errand. With spending already high, it is sure to exacerbate the already troubling inflation issue.
