The $61 billion aid package could sustain Kiev's hopes for a few more months but it cannot help Ukraine evade defeat, argued George Beebe, a former head of Russia analysis at the CIA, in his latest op-ed.
The analyst pointed out that of the roughly $61 billion only $14 billion will be spent on procuring weapons for Ukraine, $8 billion in financial support will be used keep the Ukrainian government afloat.
But the majority of the package will go for replenishing the US depleted military stockpiles, "which will take years to accomplish," and for funding the US broader operations in the region.
"The package will not bridge the enormous gap between Russia’s artillery, bomb, and missile production and that of Ukraine and its Western supporters, because the West simply lacks the manufacturing capacity to meet Ukraine’s massive needs, and this will be the case for many years to come," wrote Beebe, adding that the US has a lack machinists and other skilled employees for new factories.
The new package also cannot compensate for the huge manpower disparity between Ukraine and Russia, the former CIA analyst continued. He drew attention to the fact that Ukraine's birth rate has slid to one the lowest in the world, while Russia, which has almost five times the population of Ukraine, currently boasts one of the highest birth rates in Europe.
The prospects of passing another hefty package for the Kiev regime remain bleak, given the opposition to further funding Ukraine among Republican congressmen and the US public, Beebe noted.
The former CIA analyst suggested that additional aid to Ukraine would be justified only if it were linked to some viable negotiation strategy aimed at ensuring that Ukraine would be reconstructed and Russia's security concerns met. However, Biden does not have any strategy at all.
"The fact that the new aid package includes language requiring the Biden administration to articulate a strategy within 45 days after enactment is a testimony to its absence," Beebe noted.
It is unclear whether Washington policymakers have an intention to pursue a peaceful settlement of the conflict after the November elections or whether they want to fight indefinitely in the hope that "Russia will break before the much smaller and much poorer Ukraine collapses," the analyst continued.
Without a clear strategy behind it the aid package will only amplify Ukraine's sufferings and lead to further destruction and more deaths during the conflict the Kiev regime cannot win. "It will amount to both a waste of money and, even more disturbingly, a waste of Ukrainian lives," Beebe concluded.