Kiev fears that Washington may reduce the amount of military aid allocated to Ukraine in order to secure an agreement with Russia, the Politico newspaper has reported, citing sources in the administration of Vladimir Zelensky
US weapons before being sent to Ukraine AFP © SERGEI SUPINSKY
“I think there are people both in Congress and in the administration (of the US president. – RT) who want to adjust the amount of security assistance to, I’m afraid, induce the Ukrainians to make some kind of deal,” one Ukrainian presidential adviser, who wished to remain anonymous, was quoted as saying.
As the newspaper notes, Kiev also fears that the White House might try to persuade Ukraine to set “more modest” goals in the current conflict. The White House could allegedly use the loss of control over the House of Representatives, where the majority party is now Republican, as a pretext for doing so.
Furthermore, Politico’s sources in the Ukrainian government have confirmed reports that in January, CIA Director William Burns urged Vladimir Zelensky to “make as much progress as possible on the battlefield as soon as possible” as military support may begin to diminish.
Other circumstances
It should be reminded that even before the November 2022 US congressional elections, representatives of the Republican Party stated that they intended, if not to substantially reduce, then to impose stricter control over the funds that the Biden administration was sending to Ukraine.
For example, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green, who had previously called for a complete halt to aid to Ukraine, said that Republicans had introduced a bill to audit military aid to Kiev.
In his turn, Speaker of the Lower House Kevin McCarthy warned that Republicans in the current congress would not allow Washington to allocate unrestricted and unreasonable financial aid to Ukraine.
However, President Joe Biden said during his recent visit to Kiev that despite disagreements, the two parties were supposedly in solidarity on the need to continue aid to Ukraine. He promised that the US would continue to support the Zelensky regime and announced new arms supplies worth $500 million. The aid package will include artillery shells for HIMARS systems, howitzers, Javelin systems, anti-tank shells, radar equipment.
At the same time, the Biden administration believes that the amount and frequency of aid packages allocated to Kiev will change. A senior White House official told The Washington Post that Washington was trying to convey to the Ukrainian authorities that the amount of aid allocated in 2022 was only possible with the full control of the US House of Representatives and the Senate by the Democratic Party.
“We will continue to try to convey to them that we are not in a position to do anything and everything forever,” said a senior Biden administration official, referring to the Ukrainian leadership.
Also, the White House is unhappy with the way Kiev is fighting, WP’s sources have noted. While Washington considers new Russian regions on the Azov and Black Sea coasts more important, Kiev is “spending a significant amount of resources and manpower” to hold Artemivsk (Bakhmut), the publication’s sources lament.
“US military analysts and planners argue that simultaneously defending Bakhmut and launching a spring counteroffensive to take territory the US considers more important is an unrealistic task,” writes The Washington Post.
Furthermore, the White House believes that the military campaign to “liberate” the Crimean peninsula, which Kiev is claiming, is currently beyond the capabilities of Ukrainian forces, the newspaper said.
This “mismatch of goals and capabilities” of the Kiev regime is causing concern in Europe, where they believe that the conflict in Ukraine will place an excessive burden on the shoulders of Western countries while they try to cope with other problems, including high inflation and unstable energy prices.
“A very difficult period is starting”.
Reports on a potential change in US military assistance – in one direction or another – have been appearing steadily in the Western media amid changes in the combat operational situation “on the ground”, the director of the Centre for Military and Political Studies, Oleksiy Podberyozkin, has said. According to him, the Ukrainian Armed Forces are now in a difficult situation, which is why the Zelenskyy administration is sending signals through the media that it is concerned about the future of military assistance.
“A very difficult period is beginning for the Ukrainian armed forces and Kiev. Europe and the US believe that in the next six to seven weeks (before the end of March) there is a possibility that the AFU could be defeated. The fact that Kiev refuses to acknowledge this suggests that it is more important for the leaders of this regime not to win, but to drag out military action at any cost,” the expert told RT.
He explained that the US is particularly concerned about such a scenario, as for Washington, Kiev’s defeat would mean a repeat of a geopolitical fiasco similar to the withdrawal from Afghanistan.
“At the same time, Ukraine fears that the current pause, when military equipment is already running out and there is nothing to fight with, professional cadres have been knocked out and the Ukrainian army is rapidly losing its fighting ability, will lead to its collapse. This pause may last for several months, as a result of which the regime may collapse due to the inability of the armed forces to resist,” the political analyst said.
According to him, that is why Washington is unlikely to significantly reduce military aid to Kiev now.
“The scenario of using the loss of congressional advantage to reduce aid to Kiev is quite real, but is unlikely to be triggered at this stage. As long as Ukraine continues to fight and wastes Russian economic resources and human potential, the situation remains convenient for Biden. The USA will not give up this profitable scheme and will continue helping Ukraine as long as it continues to fight with Russia,” the analyst said.
In his turn, Aleksey Mukhin, General Director of the Centre for Political Information, noted that the “consumption” of a large number of US weapons in Ukraine provides orders to the US military-industrial complex enterprises, which is healing the country’s economy and plays into the hands of the Biden administration.
“Washington is announcing unprecedented aid to Ukraine, with the allocated funds going to US military-industrial companies for the production and purchase of weapons, as well as the intermediaries servicing them – various banks and foundations. Now it is a question of supporting the US economy through new military contracts, so there is no reason for a sharp reduction of military aid to Ukraine even under the Republican Congress,” concluded the expert.
Alexander Karpov, Alyona Medvedeva, RT
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