The US will send a air defense system to Ukraine

The Pentagon is preparing to send a Patriot missile defense system to Ukraine, as requested by Ukrainian President Joe Biden and the Working Group of the Joint Security Council

The Biden administration is finalizing plans to send the Patriot missile defense system to Ukraine that could be announced as soon as this week, according to two US officials and a senior administration official.

The Pentagon’s plan still needs to be approved by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin before it is sent to President Joe Biden for his signature. The three officials told CNN that approval is expected.

In order to support NATO allies in defense against the Russian invasion, the US has sent weapons to Poland and other NATO countries.

The Army says that just one battery has 90 soldiers, and includes computers, engagement control system, phased array radar, power generating equipment, and “up to eight launchers.”

The Ukrainians will be trained to use the torpedoes at a US army base in Germany, once the plans are finalized.

Unlike smaller air defense systems, Patriot missile batteries need much larger crews, requiring dozens of personnel to properly operate them. The training for Patriot missile batteries normally takes multiple months, a process the United States will now carry out under the pressure of near-daily aerial attacks from Russia.

The US has sent missiles to Iraq and Saudi Arabia in order to deter Iran from threatening them and to deter North Korea.

He told NPR he was hoping for a fast-track training which he said is what the US intended for the air defense missiles. The U.S. started training Ukrainians on them at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, this month.

The officials said Lloyd J. Austin III could approve a directive this week to transfer an already deployed battery to the country of their choice. President Biden would give the final approval.

The White House, Pentagon, and State Department are unwilling to comment on the details of the transfer of a Patriot battery that would amount to one of the most sophisticated weapons the US has provided Ukraine.

Russia has been attacking the infrastructure and power grid in Ukraine over the last month or so as winter approaches. Zelensky told Biden that “Russian missile terror” had knocked out roughly half of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

Mr. Zelensky had asked for financing for weapons in his speech to the Group of 7 nations.

Do we need a nuclear weapon? Russian aggression, deterrence, and savagery in a war of colonial reconquest

Sanctions have not been enough to shake Russia’s determination to restore its empire at the cost of peaceful neighboring states. Instead of continuing to set up more targets for Russia to knock down, the US and Ukraine’s other Western backers should change the terms of the conflict. The international community must do more than simply tolerate Russia’s naked aggression and the savagery with which it is pursuing its war of colonial reconquest. More direct intervention is long overdue.

Russia and its supporters around the world will use this as a massive and dangerous escalation. That’s nonsense, but it’s highly effective nonsense.

Since well before February’s invasion, portentous but vague threats from Russia of unspecified but alarming responses have been sufficient to serve as a massive brake on Western support for Ukraine.

In doing so, the West has played along with the Kremlin’s pretense that it is not at war, only waging a “special military operation.” It has made sure that Russia does not suffer from consequences of its aggression.

Russia’s most effective tool of deterrence remains nuclear threats. Loose talk from Russia about using nuclear weapons has died down a little recently, but a decade or more of driving home the message of inevitable nuclear response if Russia is cornered or humiliated has already had its effect.

Russia will continue to look for sources of replacements as it attempts to make up for the missed missiles it had in its arsenal. And Iran may not be the only country willing to supply Russia in the future.

That sets a disastrous example for other aggressive powers around the world. It says nuclear weapons make it possible to wage genocidal wars of destruction against your neighbors.

If that’s not the message the US and the West want other aggressor states around the world to receive, then supply of Patriot should be followed by far more direct and assertive means of dissuading Moscow.

“This is not a system that will go after drones or smaller ballistic missiles,” he said. Can it do that? Absolutely. But when you’re talking about knocking down a $20,000 drone, or a $100,000 ballistic missile that Russia buys, with a $3-5 million rocket, that doesn’t give you much of a return on the investment. The systems that are low and medium can be freed up to go after those targets.

According to Tom Karako, the director of the Missile Defense Project at CSIS, the patriot isn’t a game-changer because it’s still only able to defend a small piece of dirt.

And in Ukraine’s case, Hertling says offensive operations are far more important than the Patriot system. CNN reported a month ago that the US was considering instructing as many as 2,500 troops a month at a US base in Germany as part of a plan to increase training for Ukrainian forces. The Pentagon said this month that they would begin their combined arms training in January.

According to a recent report from CSIS, the missile rounds on the Patriot come in around $4 million each. Rounds that are expensive will likely not be used to shoot down all the missiles that Russia launches towards Ukraine.

The system was sent to Poland to help them defend themselves against Russia, because other US allies, including Israel, Germany and Japan, had purchased it. The US military made it clear in March that the system would not support offensive operations when it was sent to Poland.

“The Patriots are a defensive, anti-ballistic and anti-aircraft weapon system, with the emphasis on defensive,” Hertling said. You don’t win wars if you have defensive capabilities. You win wars with offensive capabilities.”

The U.S. Response to the Russian Insurrection on Ukraine During the Decelerating Cold Winter Season: Air-Strike Barrages and Relics of the Cold War

The transfer is part of a $1.85 billion package of new military assistance to Ukraine announced amid a months-long Russian assault on the country’s critical infrastructure as the long, cold winter season sets in.

“In response, President Biden will announce today that the United States is providing critical new and additional military capabilities to help defend itself from Russia’s brutal and unprovoked assault,” he said.

The announcement was made on a day that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was in Washington, D.C. — his first trip outside of Ukraine since the war began — to plead for additional air defense capabilities as Russian strikes have repeatedly disrupted power and water supply across his country.

It will do a good job of defending the city against threats. But it’s not putting a bubble over Ukraine,” said Mark Cancian, a retired Marine Corps colonel and senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The training requirements mean that the system isn’t likely to be in use until late winter or early spring.

Cancian warned that the haste of training could hamper the effectiveness of the system and that theUkrainians might be unable to stop Russians from destroying it. That could hurt the political will to send future aid to Ukraine.

If the Ukrainians had a year or two to fully comprehend the system that wouldn’t be a problem. The problem is they don’t have a year or two. They want to do this in a couple weeks,” Cancian said.

Ukraine was able to block most of the incoming missiles and drones. But stockpiles are dwindling for the defense systems that Ukraine has relied on through this point, analysts said.

The recent Russian airstrike barrages and ongoing assault on Ukraine’s critical infrastructure have turned up pressure on the U.S. and its allies to do more.

The new aid package announced Wednesday includes tens of thousands of GRAD rockets, as well as more than 10,000 tank rounds and hundreds of thousands of mortars.

Arrival of Ukrainian air defence forces in Kiev after the first missile attack launched at the Stimson Center on January 8th, 2014, according to a news release by Greico

Kelly Greico, a defence analyst at the Stimson Center, claims that the announcement “shows that there is a serious concern about Ukraine’s air defense capability.”

The power grid is the center of the country. The analyst at CNAS said that there are more sites to protect.

According to Greico, Russia might use cheap Iranian drones to get Ukraine to use its missiles before unleashing its air force.

“That’s a terrible choice to face, between the natural urge to protect your civilians from these brutal attacks and trying to ensure that you have the long-term military wherewithal to continue to resist the Russian war effort,” Greico said.

The Bradley vehicle can hold around 10 troops and is used to transport personnel into battle. The White House said the US and Germany would provide training to Ukrainian forces on the respective vehicles being provided to Kyiv.

Zelensky wanted those systems because they will allow his military to Target Russian missiles that are flying higher up in the sky than they were able to do before.

On their phone call, Biden and Scholz “expressed their common determination to continue to provide the necessary financial, humanitarian, military and diplomatic support to Ukraine for as long as needed,” a joint statement read.

The Ukrainian troops are all men and women. They arrived in January and are due to compete in the coming days. The Ukrainians trained daily from 7a.m. to 6p.m., according to the Fort Sill official.

State of Ukraine: NPR’s coverage of the Russian invasion of Donetsk by Ukraine during the March 6 Ukrainian General Relativity

The International Monetary Fund will release its World Economic Outlook on Tuesday morning in Singapore. Russia-Ukraine war is a big factor causing the economic downturn in some countries according to the International Monetary Fund.

A group of European Commission leaders is expected to visit Ukraine on Thursday and European Union leaders plan to hold a summit with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy the following day.

The Ukrainian military acknowledged the Russian takeover of Soledar, and retreated from the eastern town after a tough battle. Russian forces continued their offensive around Bakhmut and other parts of the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.

At the same time that the two governments were upset over the invasion of Ukrainian, the new US Ambassador to Russia arrived in Moscow. On Monday, Tracy was reportedly heckled by protesters as she entered the Russian Foreign Ministry to present her credentials.

Estonia and Latvia told Russia’s ambassadors to leave after the Kremlin said it expelled the Estonian ambassador and downgrading relations with the Baltic NATO member state over what it called “Russophobia.”

Here you can read past recaps. For context and more in-depth stories, you can find more of NPR’s coverage here. Also, listen and subscribe to NPR’s State of Ukraine podcast for updates throughout the day.

U.S. Defense Minister Reznikov’s View of Ukraine’s Security and Security Implications During the War: Combat Jets, Leopard Tanks, and F-16s

Most Western allies have turned down weapons requests for practical reasons in the past, according to Reznikov. When he asks his allies how long the F-16 training period is, they’ll tell him it’s very long. He can offer a powerful counter-argument by proving that Ukrainian troops can carry out shorter, very intensive training.

“My understanding is that there are training courses we can do in Europe,” Reznikov says. “It’s more convenient because we have to use a similar landscape and we have to have similar weather conditions.”

Normally, the training for the Leopard tanks is half a year. But I hope that we will do it during one month or probably two months,” he says adds.

“I’m certain that the F-16s are realistic,” he says, noting that for the past the Ukrainians have secured other weapons that first seemed out of reach.

President Biden seemed to suggest on Monday that the U.S. would not donate F-16s to Ukraine, and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told the Tagesspiegel newspaper published Sunday that “the question of combat aircraft does not arise at all.”

Reznikov says he knows Western allies are scrutinizing Ukraine’s government closely. Ukrainian reporters have reported that Reznikov’s ministry was sometimes buying food and supplies at prices much higher than they were worth.

Before the Russian invasion, most defense ministry expenses were public. Most are classified for security reasons. He says transparency is a delicate issue during wartime, but he is working with parliament to change laws and make defense expenditures at least “semi-transparent.”

Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/01/31/1152523328/ukraine-defense-minister-reznikov-fighter-jets-f16s

The First Detection of Corruption in the U.S. Military: Deployment of Air Defense Systems and Tanks to Ukraine

He says that it is not a piece of cake, but that he will do it. My principle is zero tolerance for corruption. We have to be a new Ukraine, with the European standard, not the old-fashioned Soviet Ukraine with a legacy of corruption.”

US Patriot missile defense systems and Abram tanks are set to be deployed to Ukraine faster than originally planned, US defense officials said on Tuesday.

US trainers at Fort Sill, where the 65 Ukrainians have been training since January 15, were able to significantly speed up the timeline of the course because of the Ukrainians’ baseline knowledge of air defense systems, the officials said.

The Ukrainians’ day-to-day training in Oklahoma was overseen by the Army’s 3rd Battalion, 6th Field Artillery Regiment, Morgan said, adding that the Ukrainian troops were “hand-picked by their country” and the “best of the best in what they do.”

“I’m certain their actions these past months will save lives and alleviate suffering,” Col. Marty O’Donnell, the spokesman for US Army Europe and Africa, said of the Ukrainian troops on Tuesday. What they did mattered to the world and to the people of Ukraine.

“We’re working on that. Kirby spoke on MSNBC about the possible changes that could be made to speed up the process. The Pentagon is working quickly and they will have more to say on adjustments they are making.

The US still intends to send 31 M1-A1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, the same number as previously announced and the size of a complete Ukrainian tank battalion.