Let the weapons flow, dammit!
The U.S. --
The White House National Security Council said Tuesday that the “more advanced rocket systems” were longer-range Multiple Launch Rocket Systems, or MLRS. They are capable of reaching Russia, officials said, but are not intended to fire rockets into Russia or be used outside Ukraine.
A senior administration official said Ukraine has agreed not to use them to launch rockets into Russia.
The senior official said that the package would be for $700 million and that it would also include more systems and weapons that the U.S. has already provided Ukraine, including more Javelin missiles.
Sending Ukraine the long-range weapons systems had been under discussion in the Biden administration, as officials debated whether Russia would view the U.S.’s granting Ukraine’s request for them as escalatory because of their range. Officials said earlier Tuesday that Biden had reached a decision, and NBC News reported that an announcement could come within the next day. [snip]
A defense official said Tuesday that the Defense Department believes it can get the training for Ukrainian troops down to a week or two for basic operations and that there will be longer training courses for maintenance of the system. The official said that training will all occur outside Ukraine.
BBC analyst Paul Adams thinks this could be a game- changer in the fighting in the Donbas:
As they face overwhelming Russian firepower in a grinding, attritional battle for the Donbas, Ukrainian forces complain that they lack firepower.
The HIMARS [High Mobility Artillery Rocket System] could change that.
Its GPS-guided rockets are much more accurate than the equivalent Russian systems. It's also much quicker to reload and, as the name suggests, the launch vehicles can move quickly from one location to another.
US and Ukrainian officials will already be having detailed conversations about how and where to use the HIMARS when they arrive.
Ukraine will be looking to hit targets well beyond its current reach - command and control centres, logistics hubs, and the Russian batteries that have Ukrainian troops pinned down in Donbas.
Germany --
Germany will supply Ukraine with the IRIS-T air defence system, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said, following pleas from Kyiv and German opposition parties to step up heavy weapons deliveries.
Scholz said Germany had been "delivering continuously since the beginning of the war", pointing to more than 15 million rounds of ammunition, 100,000 grenades and over 5,000 anti-tank mines sent to Ukraine since Russia invaded the country on Feb. 24.
"Most recently, the government has decided that we will deliver the most modern air defence system that Germany has in the form of the IRIS-T," Scholz told lawmakers in the Bundestag.
Denmark --
Ukraine has started receiving Harpoon anti-ship missiles from Denmark and self-propelled howitzers from the United States, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said on May 28.
"The coastal defense of our country will not only be strengthened by Harpoon missiles -- they will be used by trained Ukrainian teams," Reznikov wrote on his Facebook page.
He said Harpoon shore-to-ship missiles would be operated alongside Ukrainian Neptune missiles to defend Ukraine's Black Sea, including the southern port of Odesa.
The Harpoon is an all-weather, over-the-horizon, anti-ship missile that uses active radar homing and flies just above the water to evade defenses. It can be launched from ships, submarines, aircraft, or coastal batteries.
Russia has blockaded Ukrainian ports, hampering vital grain exports, and used its Black Sea fleet to launch missile attacks against Ukrainian cities.
Let the grain flow, too, dammit!
Poland --
Poland’s prime minister says his country will serve as an “economic hub” for neighbouring Ukraine, helping it export grain and other products while Russia blocks Ukraine’s export routes, chiefly its ports.
Speaking on Wednesday in the Ukrainian town of Borodyanka, near the capital, Kyiv, Mateusz Morawiecki said Poland is working on expanding its infrastructure and capacity to facilitate the export of millions of tonnes of Ukrainian grain and other agriculture products.
He added that Warsaw was receiving European Union funds for the purpose and warned that North African countries which rely heavily on Ukrainian grain could face problems feeding their populations without the foodstuff.
The next weeks and months are critical to the effort to contain and ultimately defeat Russian thug and war criminal Putin and his dreams of a restored Soviet Union. These are important, hopeful steps, but the effort must be sustained not only by the U.S., but by its NATO allies.
(Photo: Medium range American HIMARS/ Getty Images)
