Since the Russian annexation of Crimea, Washington has spent some $2.7bn (£2bn) on military aid to Ukraine, including secret paramilitary training provided to the country’s special forces by the CIA. Of equal, if not greater value, to the Ukrainian forces is the training received by many of its elite troops from the West, in particular America and the UK, prior to the conflict, and the intelligence being shared as Russian troops seek to seize the country. However, distribution towards cities such as Kharkiv and Kyiv, both the subject of Russian encirclement operations, seems difficult. The most likely route would be via NATO states bordering Ukraine, with Russian troops as yet thought to be some distance from the western reaches of the country. The question remains of just how the vast quantity of military aid now promised, including Russian-built aircraft such as MiG-29s currently operated by ex-Soviet NATO members such as Bulgaria and Slovakia, is going to reach the Ukrainian armed forces. In what European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen described as a “watershed moment”, Brussels said it had approved the supply of €450m (£375m) of lethal aid to Russia to be supplied via members states while Germany has reversed a decades-old policy of not allowing weaponry exports to live conflicts.
Such aid is part of a deluge of Western kit and weaponry which is en route to the Ukrainian authorities following unprecedented decisions by Germany and the EU as a whole to supply lethal weaponry.
In London, Boris Johnson yesterday promised Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky UK military aid “in the coming hours and days”. Mother of teen soldier captured in Azovstal steel plant ‘born again’ after son’s release 02 October, 2022 Russian troops forced to flee as Ukrainian forces move to liberate key city of Lyman 01 October, 2022 Nord Stream gas leaks in Russian pipeline ‘clearly an act of sabotage’, says Liz Truss 01 October, 2022Īmerican Secretary of State Antony Blinken this weekend announced “immediate military assistance” worth $350m (£260m) for Ukraine, understood to include Javelin anti-tank missiles, munitions and body armour.
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