Biden Administration Moves Ukraine to Top of List for U.S. Weapons Sales, Making Allies WaitKristina Wong 20 Jun 2024
The Biden administration has decided to move Ukraine to the top of the list on countries receiving air defense weapons, and effectively making American allies wait at least 16 months for those same weapons.
The administration said it was because in recent months Russia has stepped up its missile and drone attacks in Ukraine in an attempt to destroy its energy system ahead of the winter.
“This is not a new tactic for them, but they have certainly applied a lot more energy and effort into it in recent months,” National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby told reporters Thursday. He added:
As we’ve heard from President Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian military is in desperate need of additional air defense capabilities. We take our partnership seriously, especially when a partner like Ukraine is in such jeopardy. Right now, we know that Ukraine urgently needs these additional capabilities,
We have continued to dig deep and provide Ukraine with a variety of air defense systems and interceptor missiles from our own stockpiles, including those of the Patriot system, NASAMs, and of course, the Hawks.
Many of our allies and partners have stepped up in historic ways as well. But obviously, more is needed, and it’s needed now. So as a result, the United States government has made the difficult but necessary decision to reprioritize, near term, planned deliveries of foreign military sales to other countries of particularly Patriot and NASAM missiles to go to Ukraine instead.
The move is the latest move by President Joe Biden in escalating the U.S.’s involvement in Ukraine’s war with Russia. He recently approved allowing Ukraine to use U.S. weapons to strike inside Russia, if Russian forces were readying to attack across the border into Ukraine.
At first the administration claimed the policy was only to hit Russian forces who were readying to attack Kharkiv, but now the Biden administration claims its new policy would allow Ukraine to strike Russian forces anywhere inside Ukraine where they are preparing to launch attacks into Ukraine.
It is unclear if the move would be able to be reversed should former President Donald Trump win re-election in November.
Sen. JD Vance (R-OH), a staunch critic of continuing to send billions of U.S. taxpayer money into Ukraine to fuel the war, slammed the decision, saying, “At this point we are actively endangering our national security by focusing on Ukraine to the exclusion of other priorities. A slow running disaster from the Biden admin.”
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https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/06/20/biden-administration-moves-ukraine-to-top-of-list-for-u-s-weapons-sales-making-allies-wait/
