Washington has gone to great lengths to prepare Kiev “to wage a hybrid war against Russia,” a major US news outlet has said
The US has drastically increased its shipments of lethal aid to Ukraine since late last year, including weapons and gear for urban combat, the Washington Post reported on Saturday, after viewing declassified accounting for transfers and sales.
According to the Pentagon’s paperwork, from as early as December Washington had been actively equipping the Kiev government with shotguns, special suits for explosive ordnance disposal and other items useful for combat in urban areas – that’s more than two months before the Russian invasion occurred.
And over the past week the deliveries of American arms to Ukraine intensified further, with Kiev getting Stinger anti-aircraft missile systems for the first time and boosting its arsenal of anti-tank Javelin missiles, among other things.
The list has illustrated the great extent to which the Biden administration “sought to prepare the Ukrainian military to wage a hybrid war against Russia,” the Washington Post added.
The delivery of weapons to Kiev is “a continuous process. We are always, always looking at what Ukraine needs, and we’ve been doing this for years now,” according to an unnamed high-ranking US defense official cited by the paper.
After the Russian incursion, “we have just accelerated our process of identifying requirements and accelerated our consultations as well with the Ukrainians, talking to them daily, as opposed to periodic meetings that we did before this crisis,” he explained.
Some $240 million out of the $350 million in lethal aid that had been approved in late February has already been supplied to Ukraine, according to a senior defense official.
This adds to around $200 million in military assistance that Washington greenlighted for Ukraine in late December, sending M141 single-shot shoulder-launched rocket launchers, M500 shotguns, Mk-19 grenade launchers, M134 miniguns and other gear to the country.
Moscow launched what it called a “special operation” in Ukraine last Thursday, saying that it was needed to stop the “genocide” in the Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, which broke away from Kiev in 2014.
According to the Russian side, the aim of the operation is to “denazify” and “demilitarize” the Ukrainian government, not to occupy the neighboring country.
Kiev has denied Moscow’s justification for the incursion, claiming that an unprovoked war has been waged against it and rallying for international support.
It had also asked the US to impose a no-fly zone above Ukraine on numerous occasions, but the Biden administration has been reluctant to fulfill the request, which would require NATO to target Russian warplanes over the country, potentially leading to a major war in Europe.
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Senator Lindsey Graham’s remarks were slammed as irresponsible and bloodthirsty warmongering
American lawmakers from across the political spectrum have criticized their colleague’s statements as dangerous and unhinged, after Graham claimed “the only way” to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was to kill President Vladimir Putin.
On Thursday, US Senator Lindsey Graham invoked the assassination of Roman dictator Julius Caesar and the botched plot to kill Nazi German leader Adolf Hitler as examples of what should be done in his opinion. On Friday he doubled down on his threatening rhetoric, telling Fox News that Russians must “rise up and take [Putin] down.”
“This is an exceptionally bad idea,” Texas Senator Ted Cruz wrote on Twitter. “Use massive economic sanctions; BOYCOTT Russian oil & gas; and provide military aid so the Ukrainians can defend themselves.”
But we should not be calling for the assassination of heads of state.
“Seriously, wtf?,” Representative Ilhan Omar (D-MN) wrote on Twitter. “I really wish our members of Congress would cool it and regulate their remarks as the administration works to avoid WWlll.”
As the world pays attention to how the US and its leaders are responding, Lindsey’s remarks, and remarks made by some House members, aren’t helpful.
“While we are all praying for peace & for the people of Ukraine, this is irresponsible, dangerous & unhinged,” tweeted Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA).
We need leaders with calm minds & steady wisdom. Not blood thirsty warmongering politicians trying to tweet tough by demanding assassinations. Americans don’t want war.
“When has Sen. Graham encouraging regime change ever ended badly?” Representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL) tweeted.
The White House also distanced itself from Graham’s statements, with Press Secretary Jen Psaki saying on Friday “that is not the position of the United States government and certainly not a statement you’d hear come from the mouth of anybody working in this administration.”
We are not advocating for killing the leader of a foreign country or regime change. That is not the policy of the United States.
The open call for the assassination of the Russian president provoked fury in Moscow, with Russia’s Embassy in the US strongly condemning such statements, as well as demanding Washington hold the official accountable for his remarks.
“It is unbelievable that a senator from a country that preaches its moral values as a ‘guiding light’ for all of mankind could allow himself [a] call for terrorism as a means to achieve Washington’s goals on the international stage,” Russia’s ambassador in the US, Anatoly Antonov, said.
Graham has been driven crazy by the ongoing tensions between Moscow and the West, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov implied, saying “not everyone can remain cool-headed these days, some [people] lose their senses.”
Moscow maintains its military offensive in Ukraine is a “special operation” aimed at the “demilitarization” and “denazification” of the nation in the name of protecting the people of the two Donbass republics Russia has recently recognized.
Kiev said the attack was unprovoked, insisting it had not been seeking to retake Donetsk and Lugansk by force. The two republics split from Kiev back in 2014 in the aftermath of the Maidan coup, which ousted Ukraine’s government.
