Comment The Pentagon announced Monday that it is sending Ukraine an additional $1 billion military aid, including tens of thousands more munitions and explosives — the largest such package since Russia launched its invasion in February. The announcement comes as Ukrainian forces launch a counter-offensive aimed at retaking the southern city of Kherson. The company seen in Kyiv and Washington as a vital effort to prevent the Kremlin from fulfilling its promise to absorb the occupied territories through planned referendums. Senior US officials denounced Moscow’s annexation plan as a “fraud”. New The security assistance package includes ammunition for the High Mobility Artillery Missile Systems known as HIMARS and 75,000 rounds of ammunition, as well as mortar systems, surface-to-air missiles, Javelin anti-armor missiles, claymore mines and demolition explosives. He pushes total US military support to Ukraine exceeded $9 billion since the war began, officials said. “These are all critical capabilities to help the Ukrainians fend off Russian aggression in the east and also deal with the evolving developments in the south and elsewhere,” said Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl. He described the package as including the types of weapons ” the Ukrainian people use so effectively to defend their country.” Kahl said the Russian military has suffered significant setbacks as a result of US efforts to arm and disarm Ukraine, indicating that its forces have suffered around 70,000 to 80,000 casualties in the past six months. The number includes dead and injured, he said. Russia’s vow to annex occupied Ukraine sparks divisions, calls for help But the counteroffensive in Kherson will likely be a challenge for Ukrainian forces. The government in Kyiv has signaled for weeks that it intends to advance on the city, which before the invasion had a population of about 300,000. And while Ukrainian efforts have already helped retake some nearby villages, Russian units have taken notice, said Dmitry Gorenburg, a senior research scientist at the CNA think tank and an expert on the Russian military. It remains to be seen, he added, whether Washington’s latest arms transfer will prove sufficient allow the Ukrainians to achieve their immediate goals. “The Russians have redeployed a lot of defenses … in that area,” Gorenburg said. “Khersona is a big city. And the same problems of attacking a major city that the Russians faced in the early stages of their attack, the Ukrainians would face if the Russians chose to defend it.” While the influx of ammunition and anti-tank systems in Monday’s aid package is “good for stopping attacks,” Gorenburg said, “it’s not necessarily going to be that helpful if you have a bunch of infantry dug in.” In Ukraine, the sense of urgency is dire, officials say. President Volodymyr Zelensky told members of Congress late last month that his military had only a few weeks to turn the tide of the war — a timetable is driven partly from Russia’s threat to annex parts of occupied Ukraine as soon as next month and from the knowledge that the operation would become exponential more complicated if it drags in winter. Ukrainian leaders have begged the West for more HIMARS, which along with other sophisticated weapons systems have allowed them to destroy Russian command posts, ammunition depots, air defense sites, radar and communications hubs, and long-range artillery emplacements. To date they have received 16 US-made systems, three British-made counterparts and a promise from Germany that three more will be delivered, according to Kahl. Zelensky’s top advisers have said dozens more are needed if Ukraine is to reverse the Russian advance. When asked Monday if the absence of additional HIMARS was an indication that the United States has exhausted its inventory of systems, Kahl declined to answer directly. The weapons, he said, were “very effective at hitting things” while making it “harder for Russia to move forces across the battlefield.” The The Pentagon, Kahl added, is committed to “delivering weapons from the United States stockpile when they become available.” As they wait for guns, the Ukrainians hold the line with Soviet artillery While HIMARS’ long-range accuracy capabilities aren’t particularly well-suited to the close-range combat of a slow counterattack, they’ve been useful in keeping Russian logistics—the weak underbelly that crippled its attempt to sack Kyiv early in the war—on the back burner. leg, experts say. By targeting Russian ammunition depots inside the occupied territories of Ukraine, HIMARS strikes have made it more complicated for Russia to resupply its own front lines, causing “supply line destruction” that could give Ukraine openings for additional gains, Gorenburg said. However, the Ukrainian military must be ready to take advantage of such opportunities, he said. Although Western governments have consistently pledged military aid to Ukraine, in many cases the promised munitions have been slow to reach the front lines. According to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, as of July 1, the United States and Germany had delivered less than half of the military aid announced for Ukraine. (The institute said it plans to update its figures this month.) Zelensky calls on the West to ban all Russian travelers But Zelensky wants his benefactors to do more than provide arms to help his country stave off the threat of annexation, a looming fate became more real on Monday, when the Russian-appointed head of the occupation administration in Zaporizhia signed a decree to proceed with a referendum on September 11. In an interview, Zelensky told the Washington Post that the United States and its allies should take the unprecedented step of banning all Russian travelers from their countries. “The most important sanctions are to close the borders – because the Russians are taking away someone else’s land,” Zelensky said. The Russians should “live in their own world,” he added, “until they change their philosophy.” Isabelle Khurshudyan in Kyiv contributed to this report.
