U.S. Air Defense Assistance to Ukraine During the Second Ukrainian War: Martin Zelensky and the US-Embedded Army

The Russian aerial onslaught over the last few days has mostly been directed at Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and used a variety of missiles. But while the damage has been substantial, Ukraine claims that it has taken out around half of the missiles fired – and it expects that success rate to improve as new air defenses arrive from Germany, the US and elsewhere.

When asked why the US has not supplied longer-range weapons that Ukrainians have asked for, Austin said he communicates with his Ukrainian counterpart, Minister of Defense Oleksii Reznikov, “routinely,” and believes the US has been “very effective in providing them those things that are very, very effective on a battlefield.”

While the US has provided Ukraine with HIMARS and guided multiple launch rocket systems, or GMLRS, to be used with the HIMAR systems, Ukraine has asked for Army Tactical Missile Systems, or ATACMS, which have a longer-range than the GLMR systems the US has provided so far.

“It’s not just about the equipment that you have. He said that it was about how you use equipment and how you create battlefield effects that can create opportunities.

Zelensky has been the international embodiment of Ukrainian resistance over the course of the invasion and has been appealing to nations for support. He has remained inside his country for the duration of the war, a reflection both of his desire to rally alongside his besieged country and the precarious security situation he would face outside Ukraine.

EUREKA, Mo. — After falling out with his partner at a limousine company in the St. Louis suburbs, Martin Zlatev recently sought a lucrative new business opportunity: selling $30 million worth of rockets, grenade launchers and ammunition to the Ukrainian military.

When Russia invaded the country, the US worried about the possibility of Russia occupying the entire country and the government in Ukraine was desperate to get their hands on weapons from the US. Multiple regular channels now exist and all are filtered through the Pentagon.

And a second senior administration official provided the following summary of air defense aid provided to Ukraine from the US: “We have transferred more than 1,400 Stinger anti-air systems to Ukraine, as well as air surveillance and multi-mission radars. Our Allies were allowed to transfer their air defense systems to Ukraine, including Slovakia doing so in April. And in August, President Biden announced a new assistance package for Ukraine that included orders for 8 new NASAMS—National Advanced Surface to Air Missile Systems. We’ll giveUkraine what it needs to defend itself.

The White House did not specify which air defense systems Biden discussed with Zelensky, but the United States previously committed to providing Ukraine with National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems. NASAMS would be capable of engaging Russian cruise missiles.

The 72 hours Biden spent on the ground in Ukraine and Poland have been among the most momentous of his presidency, the culmination both of careful, highly secretive planning by White House aides and the president’s singular, decades-held view of America’s role in the world.

Asked whether the attacks of the past 24 hours would change the calculus on what the US would consider offering Ukraine, a senior administration official said they had no announcements to make on that front, but that the US will continue to help provide Ukraine with short- and long-range air defense systems, as it has in the past.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said its Leopard 2s will reach Ukraine by the end of March, while UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said the Challenger 2s should be provided to Kyiv “this side of the summer.” And on January 26, Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said that deliveries of the Abrams tanks will take “months.”

It is not easy to estimate Russian missile inventories. Russia had probably used up a large amount of its precision missile arsenal, President Zelensky said in May. That seems like a long way off.

A year ago, the Russian leader launched a blitzkrieg against Ukraine, mocking its history and sovereignty, sending his tanks churning toward Kyiv to obliterate the democratically elected government led by a former comic actor. To crush Ukrainian dreams of joining the West and force them to return to Russia was his purpose.

Russian attacks on power plants, heating systems and other energy infrastructure have caused officials in Ukrainian to intensify their calls for air defenses from the US and other Western allies. Ukrainians are at risk as the cold time of the year begins and they are in the dark.

Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, also recently said he thinks Moscow should aim for the “complete dismantling” of Zelensky’s “regime.”

The U.S. Air Force is Providing War-Might Support, and Does It Really Matter Where the Russians Go? The Case of the Dec. 5 Dec. 5, Ukraine

Yes. An enormous $45 billion aid package is in the works and is part of a consistent drumbeat from the Biden administration. The message is simple: Ukraine is receiving as much aid as Washington can provide, short of boots on the ground, and that aid will not stop.

Kirby told CNN that he can only tell how he reacts to the pressure at home and overseas.

Last week, Biden delivered a stark warning about the dangers of Putin’s nuclear threats, invoking the prospect of “Armageddon.” But multiple US officials have said the comment was not based on any new intelligence about Putin’s intentions or changes in Russia’s nuclear posture.

Until more arrive, there is the risk – all too familiar to the government and people of Ukraine – that the Russian mix of missiles will wreak much greater havoc among the civilian population, especially if the Russians persist with the tactic of using swarms of missiles, inundating air defenses.

The Dec. 5 attacks were carried out using a Soviet-era, jet-powered surveillance drone, modified to function as an offensive weapon, according to Russian and Ukrainian officials, shortly after a state-owned Ukrainian contractor said it had developed an attack drone with a range of over 600 miles — more than enough to reach Moscow.

It’s not clear how far such a assault is going to deplete Russian inventories, and whether they will resort to stocks of older, less accurate but equally powerful missiles.

We see the impact of sophisticated, western-provided fire-and-forget shoulder-launched anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles. We have seen the impacts of the missiles being used. The use of offensive cyber capabilities by the Russians did not have enormous success.

The power grid in Ukraine is important to the entire country. The analyst at theCNAS said that there are more sites to protect.

He said the first time Russia had targeted energy infrastructure was from the beginning of the war.

In the first few months of the war, Ukraine made use of its limited Soviet-era air defenses, shooting down many of Russia’s fighter jets and choppers. Russia has mostly stopped sending piloted aircraft into the Ukrainian air space since then. Peter Gersten, a retired U.S. Air Force officer said they stared at that for the first three months of the war to ask if the Russians were following the basic tenets of air doctrine.

The rapid growth of exploding drones is a class of weapons that are likely to become mainstays of modern armed conflicts, according to military analysts. Ukrainian officials have been trying to get help with their air defense. If the allied militaries can shoot down the drones with a threepronged effort, they could benefit from it.

Tehran has been able to circumvent the current sanction regimes and has added more capabilities and resilience to its weapons according to a report by Conflict Armament Research.

missiles for their existing systems as well as a transition to Western-origin layers of air defense were some of the things that Ukraine wished for in their wish-list.

One of the most capable long- range weapons to protect airspace is the system, which protects against missiles, aircraft and even animals. Because of its long-range and high-altitude capability, it can potentially shoot down Russian missiles and aircraft far from their intended targets inside Ukraine.

Western systems are beginning to trickle into other countries. The first unit of the US National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System is expected to arrive soon, as well as the first IRIS-T from Germany, according to the Ukrainian defense minister.

“This is only the beginning. The item on today’s agenda is strengtheningUkraine’s air defense, and Reznikov said in a post before the meeting that he needed more. I feel optimistic.

These are not off-the-shelf items. The IRIS-T had to be manufactured for Ukraine. Western governments have limited inventories. And Ukraine is a very large country under missile attack from three directions.

Ukraine’s Air Defense Forces and Counterattacks against the Russian Drones: Poland vowed to stop the enemy from attacking Ukraine, and urged the West to cooperate

Poland was praised Tuesday by the senior military commander of Ukraine for training a air defense battalion that had destroyed nine of 11 Shaheeds.

He said Poland had given Ukraine “systems” to help destroy the drones. There were reports in last month that the Polish government had purchased advanced Israeli equipment and that it would be sent to Ukraine.

There were at least two Russian strikes that targeted the downtown of Kyiv. Two more also hit the city, according to Ukraine’s public broadcaster.

Several residential buildings have been damaged. He added that rescuers pulled 18 people from the rubble of one building and are looking for two more. Many of the central streets of the city are closed due to emergencies.

The enemy is capable of attacking, but it will not be able to break us. The occupiers will get only fair punishment and condemnation of future generations, and we will get victory,” wrote Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Zelenskyy’s chief-of-staff, Andriy Yermak, again called on the west to provide Ukraine with more air defense systems. He said that they don’t have time for slow actions.

Klitshchko posted a photo of shrapnel labeled “Geran-2,” Russian’s designation for the Iranian drones, but he removed the picture after commenters criticized him for confirming a Russian strike.

Flying into Ukraine with a MiG Pilot: An Iranian Pilot Killed and Ejected by Air Defense Drones in Vinnytsia

Foreign ministers from the European Union will meet in Luxembourg. Before the meeting, Josep Borrell, the EU’s top diplomat, told reporters that the bloc would look into “concrete evidence” of Iran’s involvement in Ukraine.

The number of jets in Ukraine is much smaller than it was in the Soviet era. Ukraine employs them in combat, but sparingly. “The Russians have learned that it’s smarter to use drones instead of missiles in this war, because there’s a lot of sustainable use of them,” said Grieco. The Russian tactic is forcing Ukraine to make a difficult choice. The Ukrainian government has been using air defense missiles to take down Russian drones. Russia is the supplier of drones from Iran for as little as $20,000. It’s a cost-benefit ratio that favors Russia. If Ukraine exhausts its supply of missiles while targeting Russian drones and missiles, that could clear the way for Russian pilots in fighter jets to return to Ukraine, with a greatly reduced threat of being shot down.

One Ukrainian MiG pilot won folk hero status in Ukraine this month for shooting down five Iranian Shahed-136 drones over the central Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia, only to be forced to eject after crashing into the debris of the last one. The pilot, Karaya — who identified himself by only his nickname, according to military policy — told the local news media afterward, “Within a short period of time, we are adapting to this kind of weapon and are starting to destroy it successfully.”

After colliding with the airborne debris, he said, Karaya steered his MiG away from Vinnytsia and ejected. The jet crashed into houses in an outlying area, but injured nobody on the ground. Karaya later visited the site to apologize.

U.S. and EU Security Assistance in the Kherson War: State of Ukraine, U.N. Report on Ukrainian Disputes

He apologized for the discomfort he caused the residents, and showed up in his uniform with missing epaulets. He said that it was a violation of military protocol. He wrote that he lost them while leaving the office.

There is a chance of a battle for Kherson, which is Russian-occupied. The officials in charge of preparing for a counteroffensive are from the Kremlin.

Some Republicans argue that aid to Ukranian should be reduced as the war continues. With Republicans in control of the House, passing additional funding packages for Ukraine is expected to be a tougher lift this year.

Also Tuesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will host Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson. There are certain conditions that Sweden must meet in order to join NATO.

On Wednesday the United Nations General Assembly is going to discuss a report from the International Atomic Energy Agency and Ukraine is expected to be on the agenda.

Russia rejoined a U.N.-brokered deal to safely export grain and other agricultural goods from Ukraine, on Nov. 2. Moscow had suspended its part in the deal a few days prior after saying Ukraine had launched a drone attack on its Black Sea ships.

The Biden administration will be sending $2 billion in additional security assistance to Ukraine, which Zelensky has been asking for for months.

There are past recaps here. You can find context and more in-depth stories here. Also, listen and subscribe to NPR’s State of Ukraine podcast for updates throughout the day.

During internal conversations about the war in Ukraine, America’s top general, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, has in recent weeks led a strong push to seek a diplomatic solution as fighting heads toward a winter lull.

The result is a growing debate inside the administration over whether Ukraine’s recent gains on the battlefield should spark a renewed effort to seek some sort of negotiated end to the fighting, according to officials.

Milley has pushed for peace in the past few days as Ukranian forces take over the city of Kherson. At the Economic Club of New York, Milley praised the Ukrainian army for fighting Russia to a stalemate, but did not say that an full military victory was possible.

The comments left administration officials unsurprised – given Milley’s advocacy for the position internally – but also raised concerned among some about the administration appearing divided in the eyes of the Kremlin.

There are many questions and uncertainties surrounding the US approach to the war and its differences with the Ukrainians that cannot be obscured by the pictures of Biden in Kyiv. This plays out in two ways, with the types of weapons the US is prepared to offer and the way the war could end. It can mean a lot to different people and there is every sign that the war could go on for many years, testing Western resolve.

According to officials, it has been made clear that Milley is not in favor of a capitulation, but that he believes now is the best time to end the war, before it goes into spring, leading to more death and destruction.

That view is not widely held in the administration. One official explained that the State Department is on the opposite side of the pole from Milley. Military brass are pushing for diplomacy as opposed to US diplomats.

The first year of the war has far more assistance than US officials thought would be needed. They know how difficult the next year will be. The US and its allies need to keep up their aid in the face of decreasing western weaponry, as well as encouragingUkraine to change its methods on the battlefield.

The US intends to buy 100,000 rounds of artillery ammunition from South Korean arms manufacturers to provide to Ukraine, a US official said, part of a broader effort to find available weaponry for the high-intensity battles unfolding in Ukraine. 100,000 howitzer rounds will be purchased by the US and sent to Ukrainian through the US.

State Department versus Ukraine: How do we get what we want to win and what we need to do to win? In response to Price, McCaul, Milley and Price

State Department spokesperson Ned Price would not say Thursday whether the State Department agrees with Milley’s position. Instead, Price deflected to a position that US officials have often made in recent months: the US sides with Zelensky who has said that a diplomatic solution is needed.

It is up to Moscow to show the world that it is willing to negotiate and that our Ukrainian partners are also ready to engage in good faith.

“He said we’ll stay here as long as it takes. That is correct, but I hope it doesn’t take long to win this conflict. And to do so, we have strong bipartisan support to give Ukraine everything that it needs to win,” McCaul added.

This wouldn’t be the first time modifications have been made to US systems to get them to Ukraine. The Wall Street Journal reported in March that classified components were removed from Stinger antiaircraft missiles by simply taking out several screws. That was enough for the US to be able to ship them out.

“There are specific and very technical tweaks and neutering that can be done to these that may make it possible in the nearer term,” a congressional official said. “But those things take time and are fairly complex.”

US involvement in the U.S. drone problem: what do we really want to see from the Ukraine? CSIS analyst David Jones, a senior US official, tells CNN

A US official confirmed that the army is studying what changes are possible to the drones, which were made by General Atomics and are referred to in the Army as the MQ-1C.

The Ukrainian side has been seeing drones play a role in non-combat operations. Since the 1990s, a Canadian-U.S company has been making drones for civilian use. Chell claims that it never did business in a war zone until last year.

Discussions over the Gray Eagle are ongoing and it has not been ruled out or officially denied to Ukraine, the US official and a Ukrainian official said. According to The Wall Street Journal, the Pentagon declined the request from Ukraine.

Logistical challenges of delivering and operating a system are immense for Ukraine, who has been asking for it for months. The reality of what is happening on the ground led the administration to make the decision, the senior administration official told CNN.

Pentagon spokesman Colonel Roger Cabiness would not comment specifically on the Gray Eagle, saying only that the Department of Defense continues to consult with Ukraine on security assistance.

Sullivan noted that the US has flexibility in their position on weapons as they ponder the risks of increase in Ukrainian security. Biden agreed to provide tanks to Ukraine because Germany wanted the US to do it its own way, while the US did not.

It’s a scenario that the US has recently been on the receiving end of. After Iranian drones were shot down in Ukraine, the US was able to examine the wreckage, the Washington Post reported.

The US official refused to state what technology on the Gray Eagle was the most sensitive but did say that similar capabilities would not be considered escalatory.

The technology in question likely centers on the imaging and intelligence-gathering capabilities and sensors, Jones from CSIS said, adding that he believes US fears are really rooted more in escalating the conflict with Russia.’

“You’re really going to fly those pretty far back from the frontlines,” he said. They can shoot from a distance and collect information from a distance, so you wouldn’t need them up close.

There was a $400 million US package for Ukraine announced earlier this month and it included more than 1,000 Phoenix Ghost drones. Those are single- use suicide drones, unlike the Gray Eagle.

The F16 fighter jets are impractical and not as effective as the Ukrainian planes it already has since the danger posed by Russia’s anti-aircraft systems isn’t as high, US and European officials told CNN.

They are still being considered, three people familiar with the discussions say. Whether or not that means US warplanes is a key aspect of the conversation. The US could ask a country like Poland to give Ukraine Mig-29s and backfill Poland with American jets.

A person familiar with the discussions asked if escalatory steps that Putin might tolerate were going to be put in a bucket. “What level is in that bucket right now? Do you propose adding a lot of volume? Those are things defense and intelligence officials are trying to figure out.

Back in Washington, the attacks were a game-changer. President Joe Biden ordered the Pentagon to find a way to get the most advanced missile defense system in America to the Ukraine because he was so angry at the threat to civilians.

The Defense Secretary needs to approve the Pentagon plan before it goes to the President for his signature. The officials told CNN that they expected it to be approved.

The U.S. Sensitivity to Russian Attacks in Ukraine: A Step Towards the Wartime Goals of the United States

There is not sure how many missiles will be sent but a typical battery includes a radar that can detect targets, computers, power generating equipment, and up to eight missiles that are ready to fire.

He says that Ukrainian troops will probably train with military in the U.S. for about 10 weeks.

Unlike smaller air defense systems, Patriot missile batteries need much larger crews, requiring dozens of personnel to properly operate them. Training for the batteries of the missiles normally takes a long time, and will now happen under the pressure of attacks from Russia.

Previously, the US has sent Patriot batteries to NATO allies like Poland as a way to bolster their defenses, and sent other weapon systems to Ukraine to assist against the Russian invasion.

WASHINGTON — The United States is poised to approve sending its most advanced ground-based air defense system to Ukraine, responding to the country’s urgent request to help defend against an onslaught of Russian missile and drone attacks, two U.S. officials said on Tuesday.

Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III could approve a directive as early as this week to transfer one Patriot battery already overseas to Ukraine, the officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. Final approval would be granted by President Biden.

White House, Pentagon and State Department officials declined to comment on details of the transfer of a Patriot battery, which, if approved, would amount to one of the most sophisticated weapons the U.S. has provided Ukraine.

Mr. Zelensky asked for financing for weapons first in his speech to the Group of 7 nations.

Ten months later, he got both. When Zelensky touched down outside Washington in a US military plane Wednesday, his arrival capped a 10-day sprint by American and Ukrainian officials to arrange a risky wartime visit meant to rally support for Ukraine’s ongoing resistance to Russia’s invasion.

Zelensky met with soldiers and handed out awards, according to his office. The president wore fatigues and a flak vest as he presented awards to troops. Since the beginning of May, Bakhmut has been attacked many times by Russian forces, who have turned the city into ruins.

Zelensky’s trip to Ukraine as a political signal for his commitment to the U.S. and the geometries of our country

In an effort to convince them to come to the Capitol on Wednesday, Pelosi has made calls to members instructing them to come, one member said. For a very special focus on Democracy, Pelosi asked for members to be in attendance.

The expectation from members, per several sources, is Zelensky will address Congress on Wednesday. The sources caution that this may not be final yet, over security concerns.

The timing appeared ripe for Zelensky to make a dramatic gesture like slipping out of Ukraine for the first time since the invasion began. For Biden, the visit presents an opportunity to reinforce his convictions for supporting Ukraine, even as the war plods on.

Zelensky determined the parameters that met his needs, and the US set to execute them. The trip was confirmed on Sunday.

US officials declined to provide additional details about the security arrangements ahead of the trip, including whether Zelensky flew aboard a US military aircraft out of his country. It’s been difficult to get in and out of the country. Western leaders who have visited Kyiv over the past year have journeyed on a lengthy train ride from Poland.

State-of-the-Art Investigations in the Production of Iranian Drones: Conflict Armament Research and the Defense of a Foreign Technicolor Factory

The task force is also having to coordinate with foreign allies, since the components being used in the drones are not limited to those produced by American companies. More than 70 manufacturers from 13 different countries and territories produced the parts for the Iranian drones they examined, according to Conflict Armament Research.

The US has imposed export control restrictions to prevent Iran from obtaining high-end materials, but recent evidence shows that Iran is looking for commercially- available technology.

Conflict Armament Research looked at several drones that had been downed in Ukranians and found that many of the components were made in the US.

National Security Council official John Kirby told reporters earlier this month that the US would be sanctioning three Russian companies involved in acquiring and using the Iranian drones, and is “assessing further steps we can take in terms of export controls to restrict Iran’s access to sensitive technologies.”

Texas Instruments told CNN that they are not selling products into Russia, Belarus or Iran. TI complies with applicable laws and regulations in the countries where we operate, and partners with law enforcement organizations as necessary and appropriate. We do not endorse the use of our products in applications that were not designed for them.

The investigation has intensified in recent weeks amid intelligence obtained by the US that the Kremlin is preparing to open its own factory for drone production inside Russia as part of a deal with Iran, the officials said.

CNN has reported that Iran has begun to transfer its blueprints for the drones to Russia to help them produce them there.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/21/politics/iranian-drones-russia-biden-task-force-us-tech-ukraine/index.html

The Task Force on Iran’s Small Business Problem: Keeping a Closer Look at the Supply Chain of the U.S. and the Implications for Trade

Agencies across Washington are involved in the task force, including the departments of Defense, State, Justice, Commerce and Treasury, with one official describing the inquiry as an “all hands on deck” initiative. The White House is in charge of the effort because it is part of a larger, “holistic approach” to dealing with Iran, according to a senior administration official.

The scale of the issue with allies is being driven home by the White House. The senior administration official told CNN that there was “growing broad and deep international consensus on Iran, from the EU to Canada to Australia and New Zealand, which is being led by US diplomacy.”

The task force’s job has been difficult due to the fact that there is no evidence of western companies knowingly exporting technology to be used in drones.

Supply chain monitoring is a challenge, but experts say US companies could be doing more to track products in their supply chains.

“American companies should be doing a lot more to track their supply chains,” said Dmitri Alperovitch, the former chief technology officer at the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike.

Keeping better track of resellers is a first step, he said, but the task is admittedly difficult because so many of these companies’ products are so commoditized and available off-the-shelf and online for civil purposes. neutering Iranian front companies with sanctions and cutting off western companies supply will be akin to a game of whack a mole, since they will easily find another supplier, Alperovitch said.

He added that the real “weak underbelly” of US policy when it comes to export controls is enforcement—and prosecuting the specific individuals involved in the illicit transactions.

He said that if you didn’t go after the people involved, it didn’t mean a lot.

Bounds on Russian and Ukrainian Arms from the Biden Warfare and Implications for the US-Russian Warhead Crisis

There are two key headline deliverables: first, the Patriot missile systems. Complex, accurate, and expensive, they have been described as the US’s “gold standard” of air defense. NATO preciously guards them, and they require the personnel who operate them – almost 100 in a battalion for each weapon – to be properly trained.

The second are for Ukrainian jets. Russia and Ukraine have a lot of dumb weapons that are fired at a target. The Western standard precision missiles and howitzers have been provided to the Ukrainians.

Moscow is struggling to equip and rally its forces, and it appears that it is running out of new cards to play. The open statements by China and India against the use of nuclear force has made that option less likely.

Western analysts have noted that Russia has complained about these deliveries often, but it has done little to respond to the crossing recently considered a red line.

This is trickier. Congress’s likely new Speaker, Republican Kevin McCarthy, has warned the Biden administration cannot expect a “blank cheque” from the new GOP-led House of Representatives.

The remnants of Trump’s party have doubts about how much aid the US should give to eastern Europe.

Realistically, the bill for the slow defeat of Russia in this dark and lengthy conflict is relatively light for Washington, given its near trillion-dollar annual defense budget.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/21/europe/biden-weapons-deal-analysis-intl/index.html

The U.S. Patriot System and the Crime of Crime against Ukraine – A View from a Viewpoint from an Ordinary Ukrainian Hero

He is an inspiring rhetorician, and – as a former reality TV star turned unexpected president – the embodiment of how Putin’s war of choice has turned ordinary Ukrainians into wartime heroes.

“It becomes a real humanitarian issue when you’re trying to deprive an entire country of its electrical grid and water and everything else,” said Jeffrey Edmonds, a 22-year Army veteran who now works as a Russia analyst at the Center for a New American Security. “I think they see that as a necessary step to help Ukrainians sustain themselves in the fight.”

The U.S. Army and a dozen U.S. allies use the array around the world. The original version of the system was designed to shoot down aircraft, and newer versions are more suited for engaging missiles.

A strike range of 20 to 100 miles can be used for missiles but not the whole of the country, so it is not needed to cover the entire country.

“That will do a good job of defending maybe a single city, like Kyiv, against some threats. But it’s not putting a bubble over Ukraine,” said Mark Cancian, a retired Marine Corps colonel and senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Even on a compressed schedule, the training requirements mean that the Patriot system is unlikely to be operational until late winter or early spring, perhaps in February or March.

Cancian said that pushing to get the system up and running fast could hamper the system’s effectiveness if Ukrainians were unable to stop Russians from destroying it. It could be a problem if political will to send assistance to Ukraine is damaged.

“If the Ukrainians had a year or two to assimilate the system, that wouldn’t be any problem. The problem is they don’t have a year or two. They want to do this in a couple weeks,” Cancian said.

They are hunted. Whether or not it is airborne. The air force and helicopter squadrons of the Ukrainian army are very important targets for Russia. They are definitely on the Kremlin’s top list.

Pressure has been brought up on the US and its allies to do more in light of the recent Russian airstrike barrages and assaults on the infrastructure of Ukraine.

In addition to the Patriot battery, the new aid package announced Wednesday also includes additional HIMARS ammunition, mortars, artillery rounds and tens of thousands of GRAD rockets and tank ammunition.

Zelensky and the U.S. War on the Warped East: a Remark on his Visit to the State of the Art and his Predictions for the Second World War

Kelly Greico, a defense analyst at the Stimson Center, called the announcement “a sign that there is a real deep concern” among U.S. officials about Ukraine’s air defense capability.

The missiles that accompany the Patriot are much more expensive than the missiles that are used in the Missiles of War program. Analysts said that Ukrainians should be careful with how they use them. “You can’t just let these things fly,” said Cancian.

He said that if you had a Shahed uncrewed system heading toward critical infrastructure in Ukranian it could be worthwhile to use a missile to remove it. It makes sense to me that the move is related to Russia’s attacks on Ukrainian critical infrastructure.

“That’s a terrible choice to face, between the natural urge to protect your civilians from these brutal attacks and trying to ensure that you have the long-term military wherewithal to continue to resist the Russian war effort,” Greico said.

Zelensky has used a variety of colorful stagecraft to maintain his people’s support in the West, and the Biden visit matched some of the tricks he has used.

Both men said they were sure the war was entering a new phase. As Russia sends more troops to the frontlines and wages a brutal air campaign against civilian targets, fears of a stalemate are growing.

Zelensky went back to Ukraine after a lengthy trip to Washington, and it wasn’t clear if a path to end the conflict was any clearer.

He stated that he doesn’t see a way to peace that involves Ukranian giving up territory or sovereignty.

In his address to Congress, Zelensky said he had presented Biden with a 10-point peace plan, but US officials said that was the same plan he had presented to world leaders last month.

For his part, Biden said it was up to Zelensky to “decide how he wants to the war to end,” a long-held view that leaves plenty of questions unanswered.

Zelensky mentioned the Battle of Saratoga during the American Revolutionary War, and the Battle of the Bulge in World War II in his address to lawmakers.

He delivered his address in English, a purposeful choice he telegraphed ahead of the speech. Even his attire – the now-familiar Army green shirt, cargo pants and boots – seemed designed to remind his audience they were in the presence of a wartime leader.

Zelensky’s role in the war on Ukraine and the U.S.-S. – The emotional response to his country’s suffering

Zelensky has shown an ability to appeal to his audience over the course of the conflict.

On Wednesday, he sought to harness Americans’ emotional response to his country’s suffering, evoking dark winter nights as Russia seeks to interrupt Ukraine’s power supply.

We will celebrate Christmas in two days. It could be candlelit. Not because it’s more romantic, no, but because there will not be – there will be no electricity,” he said.

But he also seemed aware that many Americans – including some Republicans in Congress – have wondered aloud why billions of US dollars are needed for a conflict thousands of miles away. He wanted to make the cause larger than his homeland.

It doesn’t take a lot to see tensions beneath the surface. Zelensky has consistently agitated for additional US support, despite the tens of billions of dollars in military assistance that Biden has directed to his country.

Biden and his team didn’t always agree with that. Biden, like many other foreign leaders, is intent on bringing physical proximity into a better understanding of his counterpart.

There is a big part to looking at someone in the eye. I mean it means everything to me. I don’t think there is any substitute for sitting down face to face with a friend or a foe and looking them in the eye,” he said.

He said it was important for the American people and the world to hear directly from the President about the fight against Ukrainians.

“If the Russians thought that no one at home would be affected by the war, then they were deeply mistaken,” Colonel Ihnat said. He added that explosions at Russian airfields complicated the bombing campaign against Ukraine, forcing Moscow to relocate some of its aircraft, though no one is claiming that the strikes have seriously impeded the Russian barrage.

Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, told The Associated Press on Monday that his government wanted to hold a “peace summit,” hopefully mediated by the United Nations’ secretary general, António Guterres, by late February, but that Russia could not be invited unless it first faced prosecution for war crimes. Each country has claimed before that it is open to peace talks only on terms that are acceptable to the other.

The commitment was affirmed in a phone call by Biden with the German Chancellor. New vehicles and a missile system will be sent to Ukraine by Germany.

The Bradley fighting vehicle can hold around ten troops and can be used to transport personnel into battle. The White House says the US and Germany will train Ukrainian troops on their provided vehicles.

The U.S. Military Assistance to Ukraine During Zelensky’s War with the Kremlin Project: An Activist Perspective

Those systems had been at the top of Zelensky’s wish list because it will allow his military to target Russian missiles flying at a higher altitude than they were able to target previously.

The Congress approved an aid package for Ukraine of $45 billion as part of a large spending bill last year, making it unlikely that the Biden administration would reduce aid.

The administration would work with the Congress to make an additional $907 million of foreign military financing available.

Some White House officials were skeptical that aid to the Ukrainians would not dry up completely. They noted that Senate GOP leader McConnell and House Speaker McCarthy were both ardent supporters of Ukraine.

Several Republican members who switched their votes to support McCarthy on Friday said they are encouraged by a framework of an agreement, but provided no specifics about the deal and said talks are ongoing.

That number was even higher than President Joe Biden requested – a reflection of Democrats’ concern that additional funding wouldn’t be as forthcoming in a GOP-led House. The White House had a view of that figure being an insurance policy against Republican resistance and that it would keep US support up for several months.

Rules changes to the budgetary process could significantly hamper Congress’ ability to pass new aid come September and certain conservative Republicans have vowed to oppose any new Ukraine funding.

The risks of problems have sparked concern on Capitol Hill. Republican and Democratic supporters of Ukraine are worried about maintaining public support for U.S. aid.

The diplomat said that the Freedom Caucus was showing its clout and that this was a sign that there would be a lengthy legislative paralysis.

The Russia-Ukraine War as a Cold War: U.S. Embassistants and Ambassadors to Russia Revisited

McCarthy may make some maneuvers to get the position, which could lead to cuts to aid.

Another diplomat told CNN they’re personally concerned about “the policy concessions McCarthy has to make, and if they are going to affect US role in the world.”

A third diplomat expressed concerns concessions like crucial committee assignments, such as the House Rules Committee, could be given to lawmakers who have advocated against more aid to Ukraine, which could create immense hurdles for passing additional assistance legislation.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday that it was an ” awesome Christmas present” for his country. And lawmakers in Ukraine told CNN they are not concerned that the future of assistance is at risk, noting the strong past bipartisan and public support for aiding their country.

CNN understands the UK will begin training Ukrainian pilots on NATO-standard fighter jets, in what will be the first official program for Ukrainian pilots on Western fighter aircraft. There was however no mention of providing Ukraine with Western fighter aircraft that Zelensky has been calling for.

The International Monetary Fund releases its latest World Economic Outlook (Tuesday morning in Singapore, Monday night ET). The IMF has stressed that the Russia-Ukraine war is a big factor causing economic slowdown and recession in some countries.

A group of European Commission leaders is expected to visit Ukraine on Thursday and European Union leaders plan to hold a summit with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy the following day.

The U.S. and Germany each announced they would send tanks to Ukraine, after months of resistance to the Ukrainian government’s repeated requests. Germany stated that other countries, like Poland, can giveUkraine their German made tanks.

Ukraine’s military acknowledged the Russian takeover of Soledar, retreating from the eastern town after a tough battle. Russian forces are continuing their offensive around the regions of eastern Ukraine.

New U.S. Ambassador to Russia Lynne Tracy arrived in Moscow, at a time of strong tensions between the two governments over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. On Monday, Tracy was reportedly heckled by protesters as she entered the Russian Foreign Ministry to present her credentials.

The ambassadors of Russia were told to leave by the Baltic states, which had relations with the Russian government strained due to the “Russophobia” accusations.

Ukraine’s defense ministry during the Russian invasion: How easy is it to train your pilots and what is the supply chain of F-16s?

“My understanding is that there are training courses we can do in Europe,” Reznikov says. It’s easier because we need a similar landscape to have the same weather conditions.

For the Leopard tanks, training can take up to half a year. He hopes that it will be done in a month or two months.

“I’m sure that’s absolutely realistic,” he says about the F-16s, noting that in the past, Ukraine has also secured other weapons that at first seemed out of reach, including HIMARS and Patriot air defense missiles.

“When I ask about F-16, I never heard about a problem with the spare parts or the supply chain. The answer was normally, ‘Oleksii, you know, it’s a very long period of training courses for your pilots.’” But President Biden made it very clear: that was the case. Fighter jets are not sent by the US to protect planes from air defenses, instead putting more vulnerable pilots and expensive planes in the sky.

He knows that the government of Ukraine is being looked at closely by Western allies. The Ukrainian journalists reported that the ministry was sometimes buying food and other supplies for troops at inflated prices.

Before the Russian invasion, most defense ministry expenses were public. Most are classified for security reasons. He says transparency is a delicate issue during wartime, but he is working with parliament to change laws and make defense expenditures at least “semi-transparent.”

Ukraine is ready for a war and Russia is determined to do it as soon as possible, according to the Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Danilov

He says it isn’t a piece of cake, but he will do it. “Because my principle is zero tolerance with corruption. We have to be a new Ukraine, with the European standard, not the old-fashioned Soviet Ukraine with a legacy of corruption.”

There are no plans to increase the number of Ukrainian pilots in the US and there are no updates regarding F-16s to Ukraine.

US and allied officials doubt that the jets would be practical because they require extensive training and because Russia has anti-aircraft systems that could easily shoot them down.

“One year ago everyone rejected HIMARS and no one could imagine Abrams tanks,” the official said, referring to US missile systems provided to Ukraine last year, and the Biden administration’s decision last week to give Ukraine the flagship American battle tank.

“I don’t think fighter jets are easier than ATACMS, but I believe we need to try to push,” the Ukrainian military official told CNN, referring to the long-range missiles they still want.

“We are providing them what we think they are capable of operating, maintaining, and sustaining,” deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh said last week. The F-16 is a very complex system.

Rutte, the Dutch prime minister, also appeared reluctant, telling reporters on Monday that sending the planes “would really be a big next step if it comes to that.” And Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki indicated on Monday that Warsaw would only send its fighter jets “in full coordination” with its NATO partners.

Russia is gearing up for a “maximum escalation” of the war in Ukraine, potentially as soon as the next few weeks, according to a top Ukrainian national security official.

“These will be defining months in the war,” Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, told Sky News in an interview broadcast Tuesday.

Natalia Humeniuk said on national television that her center of security and defense forces of the south of Ukranian is also involved in air and sea operations.

The Air War: An Air War Between the U.S. and the Middle East, a Memorandum from Chell and Gersten

“During the week, military representatives from the two countries will practice joint planning of the use of troops based on the prior experience of armed conflicts in recent years,” the ministry said in a statement.

This is the first time that this battle has been different from previous air wars of the past century. And this goes very much against the traditional perception of air combat.

The movie Top Gun is nominated for an Oscar this year. And here we are, watching an air war happening. And it looks very different from anything that we see in Top Gun,” said Kelly Grieco, with the Stimson Center, a Washington think tank.

“There are [piloted] aircraft that are still flying at times. But we’re talking a very small number of sorties compared to compared to past wars,” said Grieco, who keeps close tabs on the air war.

He knows what the tenets are. The man who commanded U.S. drone operations in the Middle East is a pilot by the name of Gersten. He saw drones play a role in the U.S. air campaigns. The pilots of U.S. war planes had a significant part to play in those conflicts.

Chell said that they were contacted by an aid group that could not get their ambulances into besieged cities and asked if they could use their drones.

Zelensky ‘visiting the UK intl-gbr’: A candid look at the sovereignty of the Ukrainian jets

In only his second foreign trip since the Russian invasion of Ukraine nearly a year ago, Zelensky gave a speech to the joint houses of the British parliament that deftly stroked the national ego at the same as making a direct plea for more heavy weaponry, including fighter jets.

In a poignant but carefully crafted move, Zelensky handed the Speaker of the House of Commons, Lindsay Hoyle, the helmet of a Ukrainian fighter pilot, signed with the message: “We have freedom. Give us strength to protect it.

Zelensky spoke for the Prime Minister and his Cabinet in front of the historic venue of the Palace of Holyroodhouse where the late Queen Elizabeth stood for a statue of her crown.

Zelensky suggested during the joint press conference that the decision to purchase Eurofighter jets was not solely in the UK’s own hands, even though he saidUkraine would be ramping up their diplomacy around the request.

Zelensky disembarked from the UK Royal Air Force C-17 transport plane at the airport, and was greeted by Sunak. Sunak tweeted a picture of the pair embracing on the runway. “Welcome to the UK, President @ZelenskyyUa,” reads the caption, adding the hashtag #GlorytoUkraine.

Later, he traveled to Buckingham Palace to meet King Charles III, who told Zelensky: “We’ve all been worried about you and thinking about your country for so long, I can’t tell you.”

He said that it was an honor to be the first President ofUkraine to be honored by the British monarch with an audience.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/08/europe/zelensky-visit-uk-intl-gbr/index.html

Zelensky and Sunak: What will the UK do in the next few months? The case for a Ukranian airborne missile attack

“We have no way out. We have to stand up for ourselves. Zelensky and Sunak spoke at Lulworth Camp in England about how they needed fighter jets, tanks, armored vehicles, and more.

Zelensky said that the Prime Minister was interested in providing fighter jets and that he would let them begin training pilots. “When it comes to Typhoons, not everything depends just on the decision of Great Britain.”

Zelensky responded that he didn’t know it takes three years to train a pilot in a typhoon, as Sunak noted. You know, come on, we will be sending you pilots who have already trained for two and a half years.”

Ben Wallace, the Defense Secretary of Britain, is researching which aircraft could be given to the Ukranians, but no decision has been made on whether to supply the jets.

The Russian embassy in London described the trip as a “hasty event,” “theatrical performance,” and a “fundraising event,” mocking Zelensky as an “ex-comedian in a green sweatshirt,” in a statement to CNN.

In case of such a scenario, the United Kingdom will face the consequences of another round of war with its European neighbors and the world at large.

The UK package targets entities that provide military equipment such as drones and other entities that help maintain wealth and power among Kremlin elites.

The UK government has already imposed sanctions on hundreds of Russian individuals and entities since last February when Russia invaded Ukraine, according to UK government data.

U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Oksana Markarova during the State of the Union: armed forces, defence operations and the fate of Bakhmut

The president of Ukraine met leaders in London, Paris and Brussels and repeated his call for allies to send fighter jets to his country.

It appears that Russia is about to launch an offensive to take parts of the southeast of the country that they do not control, as well as establishing defensive positions in other areas that they control in the south.

Ukrainian Ambassador to the U.S. Oksana Markarova attended President Biden’s State of the Union speech, for the second year in a row, but the war in Ukraine received far less attention in the address this time.

The international team investigating the downing of the Malaysia Airlines plane believes that Russian President Vladimir Putin gave the approval to give the go-ahead to distribute anti-aircraft weapons to the rebels.

A spokesman for the armed forces, Col. Serhiy Cherevaty, said on Ukrainian television that soldiers need to keep their focus on building defensive lines. But he also said that part of the reason for the order a day earlier barring civilians, including aid workers, from entering the city was to keep military operations secret.

As a prize, Bakhmut offers little in the way of strategic value for either Moscow or Kyiv. Its significance comes more from the amount of blood spilled to claim it.

The National Security Council spokesman said that even if Bakhmut fell it would not have a strategic impact on the war. I would say it won’t have any effect on the fighting in that part of the country.

Vladimir Putin is not going to win today, but we will. What will the future be like for Ukraine and what will we do next? CNN’s Peter Bergen

In Brussels, Western officials deflected questions about whether Ukraine would win its campaign to secure still more powerful weapons to use against its Russian enemy.

Asked in Brussels on Tuesday whether fighter jets had been discussed, Mr. Austin, the American defense secretary, said, “I don’t have any announcement to make today.”

Peter Bergen is CNN’s national security analyst, vice president at New America, and a professor of practice at Arizona State University. You can also give your opinion on CNN.

Petraeus has studied warfare for decades and practiced its application. He served as the commander of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and later served as director of the CIA. He studied the Vietnam War for his degree from the Ivy League school. Petraeus is also the co-author, with British historian Andrew Roberts, of the forthcoming book, “Conflict: The Evolution of Warfare from 1945 to Ukraine.”

Petraeus: Not completely. In an interview with The Atlantic published shortly before the Russian invasion, I explained the considerable difficulties I expected Russia would encounter and noted that an invasion force of some 190,000 was much less than what likely would be required, especially if the Ukrainians proved to be as determined as I thought they would be (and they have been even more so).

Petraeus. It is not Russia. Russia did not take the whole of Ukraine’s southern coast, even though it was close to the major port at Odesa.

It lost what it had when it was in the province. The withdrawal of its only forces west of the Dnipro River in Kherson province was due to the Ukrainians isolating those forces from the rest of the Russian elements east of the river.

Kira Rudik, a member of the Ukrainian parliament, said that the tipping point in the war will not be when we receive another set of weapons, but when our alliance will stop playing reactive roles to what Putin will do.

It is the first war that we have ever seen, it is taking place in a context that includes the pervasive use of smart phones, internet and social media.

These are just hints of the future of war between advanced powers. In such a conflict, the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems would be incomparably more capable; precision munitions would have vastly greater range, speed and explosive power.

And there would incomparably greater numbers of vastly more capable unmanned systems (some remotely piloted, others operating according to algorithms) in every domain – not just in the air, but also at sea, sub-sea, on the ground, in outer space, and in cyberspace, and operating in swarms, not just individually!

Back in the cold war days, it was said that if it could be seen, it could be hit and killed. In those days, we did not have the capabilities needed to really operate that adage. In the future, however, just about everything – certainly every platform, base and headquarters – will be seen and thus be susceptible to being hit and destroyed (unless there are substantial defenses and hardening of those assets).

Imagining all this underscores, of course, that we must take innumerable actions to transform our forces and systems. We must deter future conflict by ensuring that there are no questions about our capabilities or our willingness to employ them – and also by doing everything possible to ensure that competition among great powers does not turn into conflict among them.

Petraeus: This question is a problem of the situation. Putin set out to “Make Russia Great Again.” However, what he has done is make NATO great again – with two very capable, historically neutral powers (Finland and Sweden) seeking NATO membership; with substantially increased defense spending by NATO members, most notably Germany; with augmentation of NATO forces in the Baltic states and eastern Europe; and with the greatest unity among NATO members since the end of the Cold War.

Thanks to Putin, the description of NATO as suffering from “brain death” by French President Macron in late 2019 has turned out to be more than a bit premature.

Petraeus: All of the above and more. The list is long, including poor campaign design; wholly inadequate training (what were they doing for all those months they were deployed on the northern, eastern, and southern borders of Ukraine?); poor command, control, and communications; inadequate discipline (and a culture that condones war crimes and abuse of local populations); poor equipment (exemplified by turrets blowing off of tanks when fires ignite in them); insufficient logistic capabilities; inability to achieve combined arms effects (to employ all ground and air capabilities effectively together); inadequate organizational architecture; lack of a professional noncommissioned officer corps; a top-down command system that does not promote initiative at lower levels and pervasive corruption that undermines every aspect of their military – and the supporting military-industrial complex.

What Does Putin Really Want to Do About the Ukraine War? How Does Putin’s Administration Defend His Idealist Regime in the Second World?

And it is still led by a kleptocratic dictator who embraces innumerable grievances and extreme revanchist views that severely undermine his decision-making.

Stalin used to say thatQuantity has a quality all of its own. Russia has a far bigger population than Ukraine: Will that make a critical difference to the Ukraine war over the long term?

Petraeus. If he was able to mobilize all of Russia, that could happen. However, to date, the mobilizations have been partial, as Putin seems to fear how the country might respond to total mobilization. It was reported that more Russian men left the country than were reported to the stations.

Nonetheless, it is estimated that as many as 300,000 new recruits and mobilized reservists are being sent to the frontlines, with up to 100,000-150,000 more on the way. That is not trivial because of the importance of quantity.

Thus, Ukrainians know what they are fighting for, while it is not clear that the same is true of many of the Russian soldiers, a disproportionate number of whom are from ethnic and sectarian minorities in the Russian Federation.

The Ukrainians have shown great skill in adapting technology to enable intelligence gathering, targeting and other military tasks.

Sometimes I feel we should have decided to provide different capabilities, such as the long-range precision munitions, tanks, and HIMARS. sooner than we have.

Ukraine is going to have to transition from eastern bloc aircraft to western ones eventually. They have more pilots than aircraft at this point because there aren’t any more MiGs to give them.

So, we might as well begin the process of transition, noting that it will take a number of months, regardless, to train pilots and maintenance personnel. All that said, again, I think the Administration has done a very impressive job and proven to be the indispensable nation in this particular situation – with important ramifications for other situations around the world.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/14/opinions/petraeus-how-ukraine-war-ends-bergen-ctpr/index.html

What does Putin really do with mercenaries and what does it tell us about the Ukraine? How the Chinese would feel about the Moskva sinking

The force that Putin sends into the toughest battles is the quasi-privateWagner Group. Any thoughts on using mercenaries, many of whom are convicts, as a tactic?

Petraeus: What Russia has done with what are, in essence, mercenaries, as you note, is somewhat innovative – but also essentially inhumane, as it entails throwing soldiers (many of them former convicts) into battle as cannon fodder, and with little, if any, concern for their survival.

These are not tactics and practices that foster the growth of well trained, disciplined, capable, and cohesive units that have trust in their leaders and soldiers on their left and right.

Bergen: What are the lessons of Ukraine for the Chinese if they were to stage an invasion of Taiwan, which would not be over a neighboring land border but over a 100-mile body of water? Does the sinking of the Moskva, the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea navy, reshape how the Chinese might think about this question?

Especially if the target is willing to fight for its existence and be supported by major powers, with substantial economic, financial and personal sanctions and export controls.

The leaders of the US and other western nations need to make sure that the use of nuclear weapons for Russia would be catastrophic, according to US National Security advisor Jake Sullivan.

Bergen: Is this the first truly open-source war? The war in Ukraine is being fought in part on social media by Zelensky; commercial overhead satellites capture Russian battle groups moving around in real-time, and the social media accounts of Russian mercenaries in the Wagner Group document what they are doing.

The person is Petraeus I think it is. This is the first war in which smartphones and social media have been so widely available and also so widely employed. The result is unprecedented transparency and an extraordinary amount of information available – all through so-called “open sources.”

What do Ukrainian forces want from a new Putin regime and what does it mean for them to be able to sustain the Iraq War, and what will they do about it?

In the short term, Putin is attempting to expand the territory of Russia controlled by the Ukrainian government, because he did not succeed in replacing President Zelensky with a pro-Russian figure. To ensure that Russia doesn’t have to rely on the Kerch Strait Bridge alone in order to connect with Crimeans, particularly in the southeastern part of Russia.

That said, there does not seem to be a particularly innovative new plan, given the limitations of the professional capabilities of the Russian forces and their demonstrated inability to generate “combined arms effect” – to integrate the actions of tanks with infantry, artillery/mortars, engineers, explosive ordnance disposal, electronic warfare, fixed and rotary wing close air support, air defenses, effective command and control, drones, etc.

And all of this will be happening while we await the Ukrainian offensive that will be launched in the spring or summer, with much better trained, better equipped and more capable Ukrainian forces.

Bergen: In 2003, at the beginning of the Iraq War, you famously asked a rhetorical question: “Tell me how this ends?” For the war in Ukraine: How does this end?

The man is Petraeus. I think it is time for Putin to admit that the war is unsustainable in both Afghan and Russian territory, and that he can afford to end it in a negotiated resolution.

Also when Ukraine reaches the limits of its ability to withstand missile and drone strikes, getting a Marshall-like plan (developed by the US and G7) to help rebuild the country, and gaining an ironclad security guarantee (either NATO membership or, if that is not possible, a US-led coalition guarantee).

On the mission of a Russian helicopter torsion target in Bakhmut, Ukraine: a secret base with two thousand helicopters and two pilots

The horizon disappears for a moment as the nose of the helicopter rears. There is a small thump as rockets trail brown smoke. The aircraft has a tendency to flick on its side.

Somewhere in the battle for the eastern Ukrainian town of Bakhmut, Russian soldiers are being torn apart, and burned, as the ground itself erupts when the rockets find their target. There’s no time to reflect – the effect of the rockets will get passed back to the pilots later. The task is to stay alive.

CNN spent time embedded with the Sikorsky Brigade in eastern Ukraine operating from a secret base. It has a handful of helicopters and pilots there, conducting combat missions against Russian forces.

“We’re always surprised that we’re here. The deputy commander of the Sikorsky Battalion says his name and location are military secrets but, well, we are and they are never going to stop.

Both Serhiy and Hennady have more than twenty years of flying behind them. They flew for the United Nations in countries like South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

They say that the experience was valuable. It kept their hours up and gave them experience of flying low and in difficult circumstances – like the ongoing civil war in the DRC.

Serhiy, who leads the flight of two Mi-8s each flying about three combat sorties a day, tells CNN he clipped a tree this week. He was forced to land after his three damaged blades resulted in a 20 foot drop. The Mi-8’s are over three decades old and have exhaust and oil on their flanks.

He was too close to the front line to stay on the ground, so he took his damaged blades off. He flew to a rear location where engineers could swap the damaged equipment with three others cannibalized from a different helicopter.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/17/europe/ukraine-pilots-helicopter-russia-intl-cmd/index.html

Zelensky needs new helicopters from Soviet era to help Ukraine out of the war: the case for Serhiy, the Ukrainian pilot

President Volodymyr Zelensky has begged NATO and other allies for, among other things, jets and other aircraft. The response so far has been close to nil.

There are several Sea King aircraft that have been retired from the military that are being offered to boost the helicopter fleet in Ukranian. Portugal, meanwhile, has given six Russian-made Ка-32А11VS – none of which are even airworthy and which, its defense minister said, Ukraine would have to fix itself.

For Serhiy, the Ukrainian pilot, the equipment can’t arrive soon enough. Speaking to CNN at the brigade’s operation base, he says, “Of course we need newer helicopters because we have aircraft from the Soviet era. We are squeezing everything possible and impossible out of them.

His team has set up temporary locations near the front line where they hide fuel and ammunition. Support crews tuck themselves out of sight. Perimeter security exists but it’s invisible.

But he had to wait 24 hours to learn this from Ukrainian drone operators who’d called him in to give him the news. He was running away from the sky when his rockets hit the ground.

“The Russians can find and hit us from more than 30km away. We have radar that can track them, so sometimes we know they’re shooting at us and can land, or hide behind hills,” he explains.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/17/europe/ukraine-pilots-helicopter-russia-intl-cmd/index.html

How Did Serhiy Live? The Pain of Death During Biden’s Departure from Kyiv for a Two-Day Trip to Poland

The pain of death remains raw. Serhiy has a close friend who died in December. Many people I knew, friends have already died. It is very painful, I am very upset… I cannot move on…”

Biden arrived in Kyiv at 8 a.m. local time after a lengthy, covert journey from Washington and arrived to the Mariinsky Palace half-an-hour later. He departed Kyiv in the early afternoon.

Biden’s trip to Kyiv was shrouded in secret because of the security concerns. Air Force One departed Joint Base Andrews under cover of darkness at 4:15 a.m. ET on Sunday, and reporters aboard the plane were not allowed to carry their devices with them.

Jake Sullivan is the national security adviser for Biden, as well as the deputy chief of staff and personal aide Annie Tomasini.

The trip comes ahead of Biden’s planned two-day visit to Poland. According to the White House, the President will be in Warsaw on Tuesday for a meeting with the Polish President.

Several of Biden’s top lieutenants, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, have also visited the Ukrainian capital to pledge new assistance. The top White House officials and the Director of the CIA went to Kyiv last month.

Even Biden’s wife, Dr. Jill Biden, paid a surprise visit on Mother’s Day last year to a small city in the far southwestern corner of Ukraine. There were 48 children at the former school that was turned into temporary housing for displaced Ukrainians.

Biden wants to demonstrate his commitment to Ukraine even though it’s unclear how much longer US and western resolve can last.

Zelensky may be willing to accept certain parameters in any peace negotiations, but the US has refused to say what a settlement may look like beyond stating that it is up to Zelensky to decide.

Deputy Defense Minister Wang Wang: China’s First Visit to Moscow after the Invasion of Ukraine and the Problems of Afghanistan in the Light of the Afghan War

American officials told CNN on Saturday the US has recently begun seeing “disturbing” trends and there are signs that Beijing wants to “creep up to the line” of providing lethal military aid to Moscow without getting caught.

The US has shared intelligence it has seen suggesting a change in China’s stance with allies and partners over the last few days, but they wouldn’t say what it was.

The first visit to Moscow by a Chinese person in that role since the invasion of Ukrainian will take place this week, when Wang arrives.

According to China’s Foreign Ministry, Wang’s visit will provide an opportunity for China and Russia to continue to develop their strategic partnership and “exchange views” on “international and regional hotspot issues of shared interest” – a catch-all phrase often used to allude to topics including the war in Ukraine.

A growing number of Americans think the United States is giving too much after Congress appropriated $112 billion for military and economic support in a single year.

Mark Cancian is an expert in military procurement, who has worked at the Office of Management and Budget as well as the Pentagon. “Either weapons show up in the Middle East, someplace where they’re not supposed to be, or some oligarch is discovered to have siphoned funds off and is sailing around the Mediterranean in his yacht, paid for by American taxpayers.”

According to polling from The AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, Americans supported sending weapons to the Ukrainians at the beginning of the conflict. That has fallen by a hefty 48%.

John Sopko, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, said that there are bound to be problems when a lot of money is spent quickly.

Sopko, who has reported on failure after failure with aid for Afghanistan, warns that a country can only absorb so much aid before things begin to spill over into the illicit economy.

Bidding for the Ukraine’s Arms: Interactions Between the U.S. Army and Ukraine in the Light of Recent Pentagon Congressional Budget Measurements

The sponge you put on the kitchen counter is filled with water. Drip, drip, drip. It holds the water, ” Sopko said. “Then all of a sudden it reaches a certain point, and then all the water starts spreading out from that sponge.”

Republican leaders have asked for more regular updates on the spending of their funds after the most recent congressional funding package built in more funding for oversight.

There is a risk of misuse and diversion as a result of the volume and speed of assistance, according to one report. It also cites a classified Pentagon report that raised concerns that the Defense Department isn’t able to fully monitor the weapons, in part because U.S. troops are not allowed in the country.

But so far, there has been no credible evidence of wide-scale problems, said Jessica Lewis, assistant secretary for the State Department’s bureau of political-military affairs.

Lewis said that “we should all be concerned about the chance of a weapon ending up in the wrong hands.” “That is why we have to put all of these things in place.”

U.S. inspectors have been to Ukraine and the defense staff has been increased at the Kyiv embassy, she said. The Ukrainian government signed agreements with security companies to ensure the safety and security of their weapons.

“That is our responsibility to our own national security,” she said. It’s our responsibility to our war fighters, and it’s the responsibility of the American public to make sure we are careful when transferring a weapon.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/02/20/1141689717/ukraine-russia-biden-funding

U.S. Aid to Ukraine in the End of World War II: Corrupt Practices and State-Dependent Overheads

The many oversight reviews being done by several departments and agencies can be found at the administration offices. John Sopko is concerned about a lack of coordination.

He said there should be a dedicated team for the work and he worries that the U.S. government is waiting too long to set that up. The office in Afghanistan should have been established earlier in the conflict in order to be more effective, he said.

Sopko is particularly worried about economic aid. The U.S. is sending about $50 billion to help prop up the Kyiv government, money that helps pay the salaries of officials, police officers and teachers.

“That was one of the biggest concerns we had in Afghanistan,” he said. The salaries we were paying weren’t going to the right people. So we had ghost civil servants, ghost people in the military, ghost teachers or whatever.”

Last year, Ukraine was ranked 116 out of 180 countries for corruption by Transparency International. The country’s bid to become a member of the European Union was scuttled by the issue.

But, just months before the war started, Biden himself was complaining about corruption, explaining that was why Ukraine wasn’t getting closer to joining the NATO alliance.

“The fact is, they still have to clean up corruption,” Biden said. The fact is that they have to meet other criteria to get into the action plan. School is out on that question.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/02/20/1141689717/ukraine-russia-biden-funding

U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine in the 2021 Ukrainian Corruptcy Scenario: Is it Time for a New Look at Ukraine?

President Volodymr Zelenskyy — who was elected to office on an anti-corruption platform — had submitted a bill in early 2021 to close the Kyiv Administrative District Court, long criticized for corruption.

“I think that that’s a pretty good example that corruption can be pretty resilient in Ukraine,” said Steven Pifer, a Clinton-era U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. It took some time. It was finally shut down after a long time. That was positive forUkraine’s justice system.

Then last month, Zelenskyy fired another group of officials in a corruption scandal. “I want people to understand,” Zelensky said in a video address during the scandal, “We will never return to how things were before … to the lifestyles that bureaucrats had gotten used to, to the old way of chasing power.”

In Washington, many of the calls for more oversight are coming from Republicans and Democrats who support the war effort. They don’t want to give political power to people who want to cut assistance.

“We as Democrats — as the White House — I think we should continue to work with these national security Republicans … and their fellow travelers in good faith to not let domestic politics prevent us from staying united behind Ukraine,” said Rep. Jake Auchincloss, D-Mass.

It’s in Biden’s political interests to work with the Republicans. He’s widely expected to make a run for a second term in the 2024 election, and he doesn’t want a Ukraine spending scandal to become an election issue.

Biden’s visit comes as Russian forces make a new push to take control of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, which Russia illegally annexed last September.

“I thought it was critical that there not be any doubt, none whatsoever, about U.S. support for Ukraine in the war,” Biden said, emphasizing bipartisan support in Congress for Ukraine.

Joe Biden, the president of the United States, and the anniversary of the Russian-Russian War: The case against an U.S. President

Back then, anyone predicting how the anniversary of the war would be marked might have mused about a Russian military parade and a visit by Putin himself to a puppet leader he installed in a nation again under Moscow’s iron fist.

The president of the United States strolled through the city in the middle of the day, going to a church and looking out at the air raid sirens.

During America’s Middle East wars of the last 20 years, Americans became accustomed to Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump leaving Washington in the dead of night and popping up in Baghdad or Kabul to visit US troops and US-backed leaders. And while those trips had their own measure of daring and danger, Biden’s visit went a step further – venturing into a foreign capital that is often under air attack and lacks the security offered by large garrisons of American troops and air assets. The US did inform Russia of the plans to visit for “deconfliction purposes,” according to Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan.

Putin is expected to reply to what Biden said in his speech on Tuesday, which is when the Russians are expected to rally.

Zelensky, who met with House Foreign Affairs committee chairman Michael McCaul and four other House GOP members, told the group he planned to send them a list of weapons, which includes F-16 fighter jets, that he believes are necessary to speed up the end of the war with Russia.

The journey that required energy and endurance was a jab at those who question whether Biden should run for reelection at the age of 80.

There are many Americans on the right who agree that Biden has not done enough to secure the southern border and the issue will be at the center of the 2024 election. The comment by the man did not just show the decline of civility in US politics. A pro-Trump Republican had supported insurrectionists who attempted to destroy American democracy on January 6, 2021.

This is very wrong. Today on our President’s Day, Joe Biden, the President of the United States chose Ukraine over America, while forcing the American people to pay for Ukraine’s government and war. I can not express how much Americans hate Joe Biden,” Greene said in a tweet.

The right of a people to repel tyranny from a foreign oppressor whose fight for independence mirrors America’s own is a crucial component of the presidential platform.

It’s a process that US officials say has been driven by the Ukrainian military’s evolving capabilities, by its needs on the battlefield and by Russia’s evolving tactics. Diplomatic considerations, including Biden’s overarching goal of maintaining unity in the allied coalition, has also been a hallmark.

Jake Sullivan, defense secretary Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff all speak with their counterparts from time to time.

Ukrainian requests through these various channels are then funneled over to the Pentagon, where officials conduct rigorous analysis of the requests to assess the impact they will have on the battlefield, how quickly the Ukrainians can train and integrate the new weapons and the impact of transferring the weapons on US military readiness.

U.S. Air Forces, Reactors and Maneuver Warfare: What Do We Need to Do Now?

One senior State Department official said that they have never seen bureaucracy work so quickly, but that it needs to be done more quickly.

“The president was obviously outraged about this, as we all were, and really pushed our teams, particularly at the Pentagon, to look at what we could do on our side to help them defend against this problem,” a senior administration official said.

Biden was also concerned that Russia’s targeted campaign on civilian infrastructure would leave Ukraine’s air defenses spread too thin, forcing Kyiv to make an impossible choice: deploy its limited air defense assets to protect its frontline troops, or its cities.

At the White House, where Sullivan hosts a daily meeting of key National Security Council officials to coordinate the government-wide effort to support Ukraine, that launched an effort to get US allies to also get Ukraine more air defense capabilities.

“We really went around the world and found for them, not only additional systems that other countries had and persuade them to transfer them, but parts,” the official said, allowing Ukraine to get non-operational S-300 systems back online.

The decision to provide howitzers in April, the introduction of multiple rocket launchers in June and the handing over of tanks last month all correspond to key points in the chain of events.

Perhaps the biggest challenge facing the West in its support for Ukraine as the war enters its second year is sheer logistics, and maintaining the pace of weapons and ammunition supplies to Ukraine as stockpiles dwindle.

A senior European official said last week that the European Commission hopes to have a proposal ready by March for how to increase the production of ammunition across the bloc. The official noted that it is a complex problem, because ammunition production is expensive and will require that the defense industry upgrade its facilities.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said earlier this month that Europe and NATO’s production capacity needs to be ramped up if the West is going to meet Ukraine’s needs.

The Ukrainian military has a plan in mind, according to the US officials, which is to fire a lot of heavy cannons at the enemy.

US officials have urged Ukraine to shift to a maneuver warfare style of fighting used by the US and other modern militaries – that is, fighting that uses rapid, unanticipated movements and a combination of different combat arms rather than relying too heavily on artillery.

The plan calls for the restoration of the state borders with Russia and the withdrawal of Russian troops, as well as a special tribunal to prosecute Russian war crimes and the release of all Ukrainian prisoners of war.

The allies are realizing that the war is going to last longer, said the defense secretary of the country. “It’s going to be an extremely costly war and in order to manage this strategy, you need to have an end goal.”

The senior State Department official said the US understands this position. The official said that an end goal must be something that the democratically elected leader inUkraine can sell to his or her public. “But I think he’s committed to get there.”

Joe Biden, the Kremlin and the Warzone: How and when does the war end? A brief review of his visit to the Ukraine with Air Force One

President Joe Biden sat awake as his train car traveled into the warzone that has shaped so much of his presidency, as he rolled in the dark toward Kyiv earlier this week.

Biden will return to the United States on the heels of the second year of conflict in Europe, re-commiting himself to backing Ukraine, and blaming his counterpart in the Kremlin for putting Europe into war.

In conversations with aides, foreign counterparts and even by phone with his wife over the course of his visit, Biden has asserted his trip this week was essential in showing the world the US wouldn’t waver in its support.

As Air Force One returns to Washington, however, it is difficult to ignore the looming questions Biden’s visit did little to answer: How and when the war will end.

There have been concerns that theUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky should focus on planning and executing a spring counteroffensive as opposed to fighting battle on multiple fronts.

Tellingly, Sullivan said much of Biden’s focus during the day-long journey into the warzone was spent plotting out how he would raise those issues with Zelensky when they sat down to talk inside the gold-and-white Mariinsky Palace in Kyiv.

The day before, Putin had delivered his own important speech to political and military elites which he had a different narrative of the war as he accused the West of turning it into a global confrontation.

The differences between the two speeches were stark, both in content and character. Biden was introduced in Warsaw to a pulsing pop anthem; Putin seemed to put some members of his audience to sleep with his hour-and-45-minute address. Biden said it was a huge mistake for Putin to announce that he was suspending the country’s participation in the New START treaty.

“We have to be honest and clear-eyed as we look at the year ahead. The defense of freedom is not done in a day or a year. It’s always difficult, it’s always important,” Biden said.

Biden’s aides said his remarks were intended for many people, including the besieged Ukrainian people and Russians who may be tired of their leaders’ failures.

But, at least in the view of some on his team, most important were listeners in the United States, thousands of miles from the frontlines, without a direct stake in the war and – according to polls – softening in their support for continued US assistance.

Biden’s critics used his trip this week to paint him as inattentive to his own country’s needs, seizing upon a toxic chemical spill caused by a train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, as an example of an American crisis deserving his attention.

“Can we first acknowledge the fact that yes, Biden is over in Poland, but shouldn’t he be with those people in Ohio?” asked Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and US ambassador to the United Nations who is now seeking the Republican presidential nomination, during a campaign stop in Iowa. You have to go to your people immediately during any time of crisis.

Following his speech Tuesday in Warsaw, Biden did speak by telephone from his hotel with the governors of Ohio and Pennsylvania, along with the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, to discuss the situation.

He wrote in the caption that he remains committed to making sure that they have everything they need.

Duda and the U.S. in Ukraine: Implications of the First and Second World Wars on American and Russian Ambiguities

But he also used the opportunity to blast Republicans – including former President Donald Trump, who is set to visit East Palestine on Wednesday – for loosing regulations and making it more difficult to strengthen rail safety.

Biden’s aides ultimately believe Republican members of Congress will continue to provide support for Ukraine, buoyed by the staunch backing of GOP leaders Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy despite the protestations of some of their party’s members.

Initially viewed skeptically by the Biden administration for his human rights record and reversal of certain democratic norms, Duda has emerged as the United States’ top partner in Eastern Europe amid the raging war in Ukraine, overseeing a massive influx of refugees and turning Poland into a logistics hub for the shipments of Western military assistance over the border.

Speaking across the table from Biden on Tuesday, Duda placed this week’s events within a century-old context of robust American presence on the continent.

The United States has demonstrated on a number of occasions its responsibility for European matters during the First and Second World War. They restored the democratic rules every time. Every time, the United States brought back freedom,” he said.

Both Sullivan and Samantha Power, administrator of the US Agency for International Development, took questions at the town hall from Americans and Ukrainians Thursday, on topics ranging from how the US will keep arming Ukraine to an assessment of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s intentions and the role China may play in the conflict.

Sullivan said, “Russia’s goal in this war was to wipeUkraine off the map, to take the capital and to eliminate Ukraine, to absorb it into Russia.” “They failed at doing that and they are in no position to be able to do that as we go forward.”

Sullivan said that the movements in Russia’s nuclear forces do not lead them to believe that something has changed.

The $2 billion American Embassy in Ukraine… Is it OK to send me a letter? Reply to Pomeron and Power on the Ukraine Battle Front

The $2 billion package includes new funding for contracts including HIMARS rockets, 155-millimeter artillery ammunition, drones, counter-drone equipment, mine-clearing equipment and secure communications equipment.

Sullivan was asked by a Ukrainian soldier named Yegor, currently serving on the front lines, whether the US would be able to increase production of ammunition and other weapons to Ukraine, such as 155-millimeter artillery shells and HIMARS.

Sullivan said that President Biden directed them to increase the production of all of these types of Ammunition. “This is not something we can do with the snap of a finger, but it’s something that we are putting immense effort and resources into.”

He acknowledged that the Ukrainians have often demanded more from the US than it is willing to give, though the Biden administration has finally transferred weapons it had initially resisted sending.

Sullivan was asked his reaction to the Beijing plan for the end of the conflict inUkraine and its claim that it was a good way to broker talks between Russia and Ukraine.

The same week China released its plan, the US warned that it might provide lethal military aid to Russia. Sullivan said Thursday night that such a move has not been ruled out yet.

Still, Sullivan argued that the idea that the two countries are becoming “unbreakable allies” is disproven because China has taken a careful stance toward Russia’s war, noting they abstained instead of voting with Moscow on a recent United Nations resolution.

Both Sullivan and Power brushed aside criticism from some of Biden’s Republican critics that the billions of dollars the US is spending in Ukraine would be better spent at home.

I would encourage them to do these things at home. Are you saying that American is incapable of aiding in the good works of the world? Sullivan said.

The US support for Ukraine is one of the rare issues where there is strong bipartisanship in Washington, according to Power who was interviewed by a Ukrainian mother.

Power was asked if she could rely on American to feel safe in her country. Power said that the US was going to make Ukrainians feel safe despite the war.

“We have your backs, we stand with you, not just here on the battle front but in trying to help you feel as much safety as you can when one man and his wicked vision has tried to take that away,” Power said.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/24/politics/takeaways-cnn-ukraine-war-town-hall/index.html

The Democratic Causality Between the United States and Ukraine in the Context of War and Security: a House GOP Meeting at Zelensky

When the war is over, Power acknowledged that it would take a long time for Ukraine to rebuild. She noted that some estimates have put the damage to date at $130 billion.

Power said that the international financial institutions helped to rebuildUkraine’s infrastructure and help get private industry to return to peaceful parts ofUkraine.

She said that there are still major projects planned, and that the Biden administration and allies want the money for reconstruction to be well spent.

When a negotiated peace is achieved, most of the items we want to do now will happen.

She added that we need to make sure the resources are well spent. When you have huge investments, which go well beyond what is being offered right now, you want to make sure that your donors know that this is money that is going and that they can trust you.

As some outspoken Republican lawmakers threaten to block future aid to Ukraine, a group of House GOP members that traveled to the country this week pledged to consider a list of key weapons and other crucial needs during a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, sources told CNN.

The meeting, set against the backdrop of the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion, is a stark example of how far apart members within the Republican Party are on how to handle US involvement in the war moving forward. Since the GOP took over the majority in January, the divide has only gotten worse with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy attempting to remain neutral on the issue.

The Republicans are starting to plan how to use Biden’s reluctance to send weapons to Ukraine to bring about the ultimate victory that they believe is the only path forward.

McCarthy has not made a decision about what position he will take. But McCaul, in assuring Zelensky he will consider sending additional weapons and aid to Ukraine, did so with the private backing of McCarthy, a person familiar with the discussions told CNN.

A second person said that McCarthy supported the investigation into the possible misuse of previous US aid. McCarthy also approved Comer sending the letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US Agency for International Development Administrator Samantha Power seeking documents and information to understand how the departments and the agency are conducting oversight of these funds.

F-16s as a tool for preventing Russian war crimes: Cavoli and Kahl in the House of Representatives of the Armed Services Committee

Last week, Gen. Christopher Cavoli, supreme allied commander for Europe and head of US European command, told 10 GOP lawmakers in a closed-door briefing that F-16s would help Ukraine win. The source said that Cavoli said “yes” when asked if it was the case.

While senior US officials have said publicly that Cavoli comments go beyond what they have said in the past, they also reflect diverging views within the Pentagon, notably split between the more cautious approach of Milley who has long been wary of any move that could provoke Russian escalation, according to multiple sources

As the push for providing those weapons intensifies, McCaul plans to hold a hearing this spring on alleged Russian war crimes, a McCaul spokesperson told CNN.

Darrell McCaul, as well as GOP Rep.’s from California, Texas, Ohio, and Texas, were part of the delegation.

On Tuesday, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl told the House Armed Services Committee that it would take 18 months to train Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16s and argued training pilots for that amount of time would be prohibitively expensive.

A US military official told reporters traveling with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to the Middle East that the Ukrainian pilots were in Tucson, Arizona, for “a familiarization event” that he described as a “routine activity as part of our military-to-military dialogue with Ukraine.”

The official said that the event was about an observation of how the US Air Force operates.

This event allows us to advise Ukrainian pilots on how to develop their own skills and help them become more effective pilots. The pilots will not be flying any platforms during this event but they will be using a simulator during portions of their visit.”

“It’s just hard for me to tell any member of Congress or the American people that the best use of that dollar spent right now is on F-16s,” Kahl said in the hearing.