Changes have arrived to a redesigned Causes: Check out new.causes.com!

Causes.com
| 4.23.22

U.S. Announces New $800M Military Aid Package as Allies Ramp Up Shipments for Ukraine Amid Russia’s Donbas Offensive

Are you in favor of the latest military aid packages to help Ukraine?

What’s the story?

  • The U.S. and its NATO allies are continuing to ramp up shipments of heavier weaponry, including tanks and multiple artillery systems, aimed at helping Ukraine’s military stonewall Russia’s latest offensive, which is focused on the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine and may result in the largest battle in Europe since World War II. The new shipments are tailored to help Ukraine’s military given the battlefield landscape in the Donbas and how it may differ from the recent battle for Kyiv.
  • In the first month of the war, Russia attempted to encircle Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, with an offensive from the north in an effort to decapitate the country’s government and replace it with a pro-Kremlin puppet. Stiff Ukrainian resistance ― particularly in the Kyiv suburbs of Bucha, Borodyanka, Irpin, and Brovary ― thwarted that effort and Russian forces retreated back across the border into Belarus and Russia. Fighting in urban and suburban areas made shorter-range anti-tank weapons like the Javelin and N-LAW particularly effective.
  • Russia’s renewed offensive in the Donbas may involve some suburban or urban fighting, the terrain generally features more open fields and rural areas conducive to the use of artillery and tanks. That dynamic may result in some of the largest tank battles the world has seen since World War II. Here’s a rundown of what the U.S. and Ukraine’s other partners are providing:

What’s in the new U.S. package for Ukraine?

  • 72 155mm howitzers with 144,000 artillery rounds. Taken together with the 18 155mm howitzers with 40,000 rounds in the prior tranche of aid for Ukraine, that gives Ukraine the equivalent of five battalions of heavy artillery from the U.S. alone.
  • 72 tactical vehicles to tow 155mm howitzers.
  • Over 121 Phoenix Ghost tactical unmanned aerial systems, which are loitering munitions (aka “kamikaze drones”) similar to the Switchblade drones from prior shipments. The Phoenix Ghost has been under development by the U.S. for a set of requirements that “very closely match what Ukrainians need right now in Donbas.” 
  • Field equipment and spare parts.

What are NATO’s latest aid packages for Ukraine?

  • Canada announced that it will send four of its 37 modernized M-777 155mm howitzers along with GPS-guided Excalibur artillery rounds, which are long-range precision rounds that can be fuzed to explode in the air, on contact, or to penetrate a target. It’s possible that these are intended to “plus-up” the U.S. artillery shipment for Ukraine. While the Pentagon declined to specify the type of howitzers it’s providing or whether Excalibur rounds are included, the Canadian defense minister said they’re being sent “in conjunction with our American allies” and later said “there are certain details that we are keeping confidential for security reasons.”
  • The Czech Republic is transferring “Gvozdika” 122mm self-propelled howitzers to Ukraine, which the Ukrainian military has years of experience operating.
  • Britain is planning to deploy Challenger 2 main battle tanks to Poland to provide a backfill that would allow Poland to provide Ukraine with some of its Warsaw Pact era T-72 tanks, which Ukraine currently operates. Additionally, Britain is sending an additional 1,000 anti-tank weapons; 14 Wolfhound armored vehicles; 4,000 night vision goggles; and a small number of Stormer armored vehicles which are equipped to launch anti-air missiles.
  • Slovenia is delivering its modernized T-72 tanks to Ukraine that will be backfilled by German light armor.
  • The Netherlands is sending Ukraine some of its Panzerhaubitze 2000 heavy self-propelled artillery, which Germany will help train Ukrainian troops on in Poland or Germany.
  • Sweden is reportedly planning to transfer 155mm Archer self-propelled artillery to Ukraine.
  • While it’s still unclear whether NATO countries have provided Ukraine’s Air Force with fixed-wing aircraft, the Ukrainians have reportedly received spare parts for their Soviet-era jets from a number of undisclosed sources that have enabled them to get more of their aircraft in flying condition.


RELATED READING


— Eric Revell

(Photo Credit: U.S. Army Europe photo by Staff Sgt. Fredrick P. Varney, 133rd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment via Flickr / Public Domain)