Biden announces new $150 million weapons package for Ukraine

[TheProle]

Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON, May 6 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden signed a new $150 million weapons package for Ukraine on Friday, providing additional artillery munitions, radar and other equipment in the latest in a series of transfers to help Kyiv repel Russia's invasion.

"Today, the United States is continuing our strong support for the brave people of Ukraine as they defend their country against Russia's ongoing aggression," Biden said in a statement.

The United States has rushed $3.4 billion worth of armaments to Ukraine since Russia invaded on Feb. 24, including howitzers, anti-aircraft Stinger systems, anti-tank Javelin missiles, ammunition and recently-disclosed "Ghost" drones.

The new package will be worth $150 million and include 25,000 155mm artillery rounds, counter-artillery radar, jamming equipment, field equipment and spare parts, a U.S. official said.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/exclusive-biden-expected-sign-new-100-million-weapons-package-ukraine-officials-2022-05-06/

[BumRushDaShow]

1. Had to look up "ghost drone"

Yikes.

[GoldandSilver]

2. The Western world will be sorry

they didn’t help to defend Ukraine sooner and harder as Zelensky asked.

Russia is now putting the finish touches on the conquered territory, putting up shiny new Russian road signs and installing crappy statues of old women waving Russian flags. They will leave Ukraine a much smaller country, totally decimated and pulverized, with no assets left except it’s remaining people. What wasn’t stolen was destroyed.

I dream of the Kremlin in rubble and smoldering ashes.

[BumRushDaShow]

3. The problem with that argument

is that in their zeal to "crush" after a series of failures, the cost to repair the infrastructure that was to be their "booty" may be completely untenable and what is salvageable may be worthless.

But note that there are atrocities being committed around the world (the Kurds, the Uyghurs, Yemini, Sudanese, etc).

[TomSlick]

5. But Putin didn't want a Ukraine with infrastructure.

What Putin wanted was Ukrainian territory without Ukrainians. The goal has always been to kill those Ukrainians who would not, or could not, flee the country. This has never been about just conquest. It has always been a war of genocide.

Yes, the world is a nasty place with atrocities all over. However, there have not been such plans to depopulate an entire country since Hitler's dreams of lebensraum.

[BumRushDaShow]

6. Not disputing having Ukraine with no Ukrainians

but there was also a need for Putin's idea of lebensraum, which provides him full control of the Sea of Azov if/once the coast falls. Like the GOP, Putin projects on others ( "Nazi" ) what his own behavior is guilty of embracing. However to maintain that "control", you need a functional port and he pretty much destroyed that.

Of course he also has fantasies of reconstituting the old "U.S.S.R."

My mother was a history/political science major in college and "lebensraum" was a term that I literally heard her use most of my young life (my dad was a WW2 vet and mom lived through WW2 as a teen in the '40s).

[TomSlick]

7. You are correct. Putin will want functioning ports on the Sea of Azoz and the Black Sea.

However, since Putin's primary goal is the genocide of the Ukrainian people, he sees rebuilding port facilities as a minor inconvenience.

[Evolve Dammit]

4. Flynn, Manafort, Guilliani and Trump considered Ukraine a "playground." They fucked Ukraine all they

could. Imagine how many others did the same. This is on them for undermining and screwing Ukraine as much as they could for years.
We are providing armament and intel, Red Cross and other humanitarian assistance, and while I don't disagree we could have, should of done more, unless we want WWIII (which may be inevitable), I think we're stuck. And Putin knows it. He's stuck as well, because all relations with the West are going, going, gone.