The United States has announced recent “substantive” changes regarding the aid it is going to be sending to Ukraine, electing to send out far more offensive-oriented systems to President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is trying to make the most out of Russia’s apparent setbacks over the past few months.
A pair of officials from the U.S. explained to CNN that this change in the type of weaponry sent out to the European country seemingly reflects what Ukraine views as a chance to take back its territory. The most recent package of vehicles and munitions — handed over by the U.S. and Germany — ensures that Ukraine has “much more capability,” explained one official.
The Biden administration put out a few hints about a change in what kind of weapons would be sent over to Ukraine when it made an announcement this past Friday that the Ukrainian forces under Zelensky would be issued a massive 50 Bradley Fighting Vehicles along with long-range rocket systems. The announcement from the White House took place just under a month after Zelensky paid a visit to the White House and begged Congress to issue his country more aid.
“We are positioning Ukraine to be able to move forward and retake territory,” explained Laura Cooper, the Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary, as part of an announcement issued last week about the aid package going to Ukraine.
As a retired commander of the U.S. Army Europe and NATO Allied Land Command, Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges explained to CNN just how this new aid package from the U.S. will end up giving Ukraine a much more offensive suite of weapons for its soldiers.
“What I would imagine the Ukrainians will do is take these 50 Bradleys and put most of them in one battalion or one armored brigade … and create an iron fist that would be used to penetrate Russian linear defenses,” explained Hodges.
Officials for the U.S. emphasized that the Biden administration is still heavily focused on providing the Ukrainians with new weapons and aid that assist Ukraine in using battle strategies that it comes up with on its own. John Kirby, the National Security Council spokesman, stated that both vehicles and weapons included in the most recent aid package will end up helping the Ukrainian forces make a substantial shift to warfare which will take place in the wide open farmlands of the Donbas region, the easternmost section of Ukraine which has been annexed by Russian President Vladimir Putin as of this past September, expressed a report from Bloomberg.
