The United States announced this Friday, August 19, 2022, a new $775 million tranche of military aid to Ukraine, designed to help Kyiv launch a counteroffensive in the south at a time when Russian forces appear to be weakened.
“These capabilities are carefully calibrated to make the greatest possible difference on the battlefield and strengthen Ukraine’s position at the negotiating table.”underscored the head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, officially announcing these new arms shipments.
Additional missiles
In particular, this new auxiliary tranche includes additional missiles for the American Himars precision artillery systems changed the game on the battlefield A senior US Department of Defense official told reporters.
Washington will also provide the Ukrainian armed forces with mobile gun systems and 105mm shells compatible with UK-supplied weapons, as well as 15 Scan Eagle reconnaissance drones that have a range of more than 100 km and observations on the ground Battlefield even in bad weather conditions, as well as 1,000 new Javelin anti-tank missiles and 1,500 Tow missiles, also anti-tank weapons.
The new tranche of military aid, the 19th since August 2021, also includes, for the first time, MaxxPro anti-mine vehicles intended for transporting troops in mined terrain. Less than two weeks after a $1 billion tranche was announced, the Biden administration’s military aid to Ukraine increases to $10.7 billion.
It also supplies Harm anti-radar air-to-surface missiles, which Ukrainians could adapt to their Russian-made MIG bombers, revealed the senior American official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
This is the first time the United States has disclosed that it has supplied these supersonic missiles designed to find and destroy enemy air defense systems. A senior US official recently merely mentioned the gift of “anti-radar capabilities” to Ukraine without further detail.
“Reclaim Territory”
“We are careful not to speak publicly about capabilities that give Ukraine an asymmetric and unexpected advantage,” explained the American official. In case of damage “We’ve seen them use them successfully, so we can talk about that, but we won’t be releasing exact numbers.”
While the United States has so far only supplied “defensive” weapons, the Pentagon official has indicated that the goal now is to help Ukrainian forces with the counteroffensive they are preparing to resume, including the strategic city of Kherson In the south of the country.
“ Anti-mine equipment is a good example of what Ukrainians need to advance their troops and retake territory.” she noticed. Without saying that they are offensive weapons, she added that they were “Skills that improve the mobility of Ukrainians when going into very difficult terrain, especially in southern Ukraine”.
She pointed out that in recent weeks the Ukrainian armed forces had managed to stop the advance of Russian forces in the south and east of the country, noting in particular the use of American Himars missiles.
“ You can see a complete lack of progress by the Russians on the battlefield.” She said. “The general impression is that the Russians are much more vulnerable than they thought.”
The senior Pentagon official acknowledged that the Ukrainian counteroffensive has so far failed to retake territory, but assured that the recent damage inflicted on Russian ammunition depots weakened Moscow’s position in the longer term. “ We have not seen any reconquest of territory.” by Ukrainian forces, she acknowledged. “But we see a significant weakening of Russian positions in several places.”
“We must not only think in centimeters of territory” recovered or not, she said. But better ask “What abilities are being mined, what positions are being destroyed, and where the Himars have been exceptionally effective”.
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