New US Arms Package Shows ‘Qualitative Change’ Underway for Ukrainian Army
17:31 GMT 14.06.2023 (Updated: 17:32 GMT 14.06.2023)
© AP Photo / Efrem LukatskyUkrainian servicemen unpack Javelin anti-tank missiles, delivered as part of the United States of America's security assistance to Ukraine, at the Borispol airport, outside Kiev, Ukraine, Friday, Feb. 11, 2022
© AP Photo / Efrem Lukatsky
Subscribe
The most recent US aid package to Ukraine, which is in the middle of a stalled-out counteroffensive against Russian lines, reveals the Pentagon is rapidly running out of both money and weapons reserves, weakening its ability to behave as a “bully” around the world, an expert told Sputnik.
On Tuesday, the Pentagon unveiled another $325 million package of military aid for Ukraine - its 40th such package since February 2022. The tranche includes ammunition for anti-air and anti-tank weapons, several types of armored fighting vehicles, artillery shells, and a variety of support equipment.
However, the size and composition of this 40th shipment, which comes as the highly anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive is underway, actually shows that US funds and stockpiles are drying up, Qin An, a Chinese military expert and space strategist, told Sputnik.
“This military aid package will not help increase the chances of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to succeed. The [Ukrainian] army, which has lost its own industrial base and is controlled by US politicians - it will be hard for them to achieve a final victory,” Qin said.
Qin noted that the package reflects changes in the situation in Ukraine, pointing out that "a quantitative change can gradually lead to a qualitative change."
However, at this rate, Qin warned that Ukraine could become a “second Afghanistan” for American politicians: a money hole where billions are wasted without demonstrable benefit. But they, accustomed to making substantial profits from participating in or manipulating wars, have found it difficult to do so in Ukraine.
Qin added that the US hopes to exhaust its weapons stockpiles by sending them to Ukraine, which will create opportunities for lucrative new contracts for the country’s military-industrial complex to replenish. Unfortunately for Washington, this dynamic can only intensify other domestic conflicts in the United States.
Instead, the net result of US support for Ukraine will be to reduce the US military’s weapons inventory, weaken its combat strength and ability to prosecute wars around the globe, and especially to compete with China, which Washington regards as its primary global adversary.
"What China needs to pay attention to is that the occurrence of this quantitative change to qualitative change can directly give birth to a major opportunity for China to 'recover' Taiwan and realize national reunification,” Qin observed.
“The world's anti-hegemony situation has reached a turning point. China and Russia are 'shoulder to shoulder, back to back. There will be substantial achievements."