Defense Secretary Austin: Ukraine's survival in DANGER unless the West provides more MILITARY AID

By richardbrown // 2024-03-26

Mastodon

Parler

Gab

Copy

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has warned that Ukraine's very existence hangs in the balance unless the West provides additional military aid. The head of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) issued this warning on March 19, during a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group (UDCG) at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany. The March 19 trip was his first overseas visit since he was hospitalized in January. "Today, Ukraine's survival is in peril, and America's security is in jeopardy," Austin emphasized at a press conference following the meeting. He stressed the importance of maintaining a steady flow of weapons, equipment and ammunition to Kyiv. Doing so, Austin added, was "a matter of survival and sovereignty for Ukraine [and] a matter of honor and security for America." Boris Pistorius, Austin's German counterpart, announced a new €500 million ($543 million) weapons package for Kyiv after the UDCG meeting. "We have once again put together an aid package worth almost half a billion euros," he told reporters. (Related: Ukraine running out of tanks as military struggles to repair machinery damaged by Russia.) According to the German defense minister, the aid package include 10,000 artillery shells from existing Bundeswehr (German Armed Forces) stocks – with deliveries to begin "immediately." Aside from artillery shells, Pistorius also mentioned that 100 infantry vehicles and 100 unarmored vehicles will be sent as part of the package. Meanwhile, Austin did not outline specific plans for how the U.S. intends to support Ukraine without further funding. A proposed bill offering over $60 billion in assistance to Kyiv is stuck at the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. President Joe Biden has been pressuring House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to expedite the bill, but to no avail.

But what about the West's survival?

Even Washington itself has nearly depleted is congressionally-approved funding for Ukraine. The Defense Department, which Austin heads, has requested at least $6.5 billion from Congress to replenish its own dwindling stockpiles. Recently, the White House managed to assemble a $300 million ammunition package from the DoD's savings – marking the first U.S. funding allocation since 2024 began. However, the White House warned that this amount would only be able to support Ukraine for a few weeks. Aside from this, the U.S. has also encouraged Ukraine to broaden its mobilization efforts to include younger men to bolster the depleted ranks of frontline brigades. "Ukrainian forces lost the key Donbas fortress of Avdeevka last month, pulling back in disorder before the advancing Russian forces, and have been taking heavy casualties in open battle ever since," InfoWars noted. "The battle has prompted French military analysts to conclude that Kiev can't possibly win on the battlefield, according to classified reports leaked to the outlet Marianne earlier this month." Continued provision of military aid isn't just compromising the national security of the U.S. – it is also compromising that of Germany, Ukraine's second-largest source of armaments. According to a report by the Bundestag (Germany's parliament), the Bundeswehr is rife with shortages of ammunition, spare parts, tanks, ships and aircraft. The report also noted that while the issues have been present even before the Russia-Ukraine war broke out, they have reportedly worsened ever since German Chancellor Olaf Scholz began pulling weapons and equipment from German stocks to send to Kyiv. Moreover, the Bundeswehr faces an aging and shrinking workforce that, when coupled with the lack of armaments, could spell doom for Berlin. Despite Scholz's announcement of a €100 billion ($108.45 billion) rearmament program in 2022, several German soldiers lamented the sorry state of the nation's military the year after. The service members told the New York Times in 2023 that they still lack adequate ammunition for training exercises and live in substandard barracks despite the chancellor's promises. They also lamented that they have not gotten to fire the Bundeswehr's latest howitzers, all of which have been sent to Ukraine. Watch Clayton and Natali Morris discuss why Ukraine is clearly finished in the clip below. This video is from the NewsClips channel on Brighteon.com.

CITIZENS NEWS

But what about the West's survival?

More related stories: