Credit: US Department of Defense (DoD)
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 23 2024 – The United States and Western allies have jointly provided a staggering $260 billion in aid, mostly weapons and military assistance, to Ukraine as the long-drawn-out conflict continues following Russia’s invasion in February 2022.
Speaking to reporters at NATO headquarters in Brussels early December, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said: “All told, the United States has provided $102 billion in assistance to Ukraine, and our allies and partners, $158 billion”.
“And as I said many times before, this may be the best example of burden-sharing that I’ve seen in the 32 years that I’ve been doing this”, he said.
Last week, the New York Times reported the Pentagon will be sending an additional $725 million in arms from its stockpiles, “amid deep concerns in Ukraine that the incoming Trump administration might cut off military aid to the country”.
Meanwhile, as the UN continues its losing battle against world poverty, the UN University’s World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER), says to end extreme poverty and absolute monetary poverty worldwide by 2030, it would cost about $70 and $325 billion per year.
Dr. Natalie Goldring, who represents the Acronym Institute at the United Nations on conventional weapons and arms trade issues, told IPS as outgoing US President Joe Biden approaches the end of his presidency in mid-January, “he continues to keep the arms transfer spigot to Ukraine wide open”.
Credit: US Department of Defense (DoD)
In early December 2024, she quoted Blinken as saying, “The United States has been surging our own resources and security assistance to continue to help build up Ukraine’s air defenses, its artillery, its armored vehicles.”
“We are determined – and it’s fully my intent and the President’s intent – to spend every cent that we have available from the $61 billion that were authorized by Congress in the supplemental appropriation.”
“The current situation in Ukraine is fraught and filled with uncertainty. There are many potential risks, including the risk of a broader war in Europe if this conflict continues, and the risk of Russia claiming more and more Ukrainian territory, either through conflict or as a result of negotiations to end the war,” said Dr Goldring.
“The continued flows of weapons from the United States also risk diversion to terrorists and combatants far outside the region. This, in turn, increases the likelihood that US military service members could face our own weapons in conflict. This suggests — yet again — that US arms transfer policy lacks appropriate focus on the potential long-term negative effects of these transfers,” she pointed out.
In his interview with Time magazine, which voted him “Person of the Year” last week, President-elect Trump said: ”I disagree vehemently with sending missiles hundreds of miles to Russia. Why are we doing that? We are just escalating this war and making it worse.”
Trump also said he would use US support for Ukraine as leverage against Russia in negotiating an end to the war.
Dr Goldring said perhaps the most dangerous action the outgoing Biden Administration has taken, with respect to Ukraine, is its decision to transfer antipersonnel land mines to Ukraine in November and December 2024.
This decision, she said, reverses the Obama and Biden Administrations’ commitments not to deploy antipersonnel landmines anywhere other than the Korean peninsula.
This decision also endangers civilians, will make post-war recovery massively more difficult, and stands in stark opposition to the 164 countries that have committed not to produce, sell, or stockpile antipersonnel landmines under the Mine Ban Treaty.
“During his most recent presidential campaign, Donald Trump repeatedly claimed that he would end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours of his inauguration. In all likelihood, this is yet another example of his consistent practice of vastly overestimating his capacity to achieve change unilaterally and making exaggerated claims that aren’t backed up by analysis or implementable policies.”
But it does raise the question of what he might be willing to give up to Russian President Putin in order to move toward that possibility, she said.
At his press briefing, Blinken also said the United States has been “surging our own resources and security assistance to continue to help build up Ukraine’s air defenses, its artillery, its armored vehicles. We are determined – and it’s fully my intent and the President’s intent – to spend every cent that we have available from the $61 billion that were authorized by Congress in the supplemental appropriation.”
With the G7, we’re finalizing moving out the door $50 billion secured by frozen Russian assets. At the same time, NATO Allies and partners of NATO are sharing the burden and shouldering even more of the responsibility. Germany, for example, just made a pledge of $680 million in new military aid. Bulgaria, Czechia, Sweden, others providing personnel to this new NATO command.
According to the US State Department’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, the heavy flow of US arms to Ukraine include:
• Three Patriot air defense batteries and munitions; • 12 National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) and munitions; • HAWK air defense systems and munitions; • AIM-7, RIM-7, and AIM-9M missiles for air defense;
• More than 3,000 Stinger anti-aircraft missiles; • Avenger air defense systems; • VAMPIRE counter-Unmanned Aerial Systems (c-UAS) and munitions; • c-UAS gun trucks and ammunition; • Mobile c-UAS laser-guided rocket systems;
• 20 Mi-17 helicopters; • 31 Abrams tanks; • 45 T-72B tanks; • 109 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles; • Over 1,700 High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles (HMMWVs);
• Anti-aircraft guns and ammunition; • Air defense systems components; • Equipment to integrate Western launchers, missiles, and radars with Ukraine’s systems; • Equipment to support and sustain Ukraine’s existing air defense capabilities; and • 21 air surveillance radars.
Over 8,000 Javelin anti-armor systems; Over 52,000 other anti-armor systems and munitions; • Over 700 Switchblade Tactical Unmanned Aerial Systems; • 160 155mm Howitzers and over 1,000,000 155mm artillery rounds; • Over 6,000 precision-guided 155mm artillery rounds;
• Over 10,000 155mm rounds of Remote Anti-Armor Mine (RAAM) Systems; • 100,000 rounds of 125mm tank ammunition; • 45,000 152mm artillery rounds; • 20,000 122mm artillery rounds; • 50,000 122mm GRAD rockets; • 72 105mm Howitzers and 370,000 105mm artillery rounds; • 298 Tactical Vehicles to tow weapons;
• 34 Tactical Vehicles to recover equipment; • 30 ammunition support vehicles; • 38 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems and ammunition; • 30 120mm mortar systems and over 175,000 120mm mortar rounds; • 10 82mm mortar systems; • 10 60mm mortar systems; •
And much more.
IPS UN Bureau Report
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