An American Stryker combat vehicle like one of the ones that will be sent to Ukraine. VOA/AP.
The United States will send even more aid to Ukraine, including $325 million in emergency aid along with $2 billion in longer term aid. VOA. The immediate aid will focus on providing Bradley and Stryker armored personal carriers to replace heavy losses in Ukraine's new offensive. They will also send missiles and rockets for various artillery systems. Ukraine lost more than a dozen Bradley fighting vehicles almost immediately during their offensive. The long term aid included Patriot Missile batteries to replace the one that was destroyed in a Russian airstrike along with small hand held Puma drones.
My Comment:
The above video shows the aftermath of the destruction of Ukrainian Bradley fighting vehicles and Leopard Tanks. Sorry I couldn't find one without the commentary, where possible I try to post raw footage instead of commentary, but that wasn't possible in this case. Regardless, it does show how heavy casualties have been for the Ukrainians in their new offensive.
From what I was able to gather the Leopard tanks that were equipped with mine clearing plows were destroyed or damaged and were unable to continue the attack. The Bradley's and the normal Leopard then tried to move around the mine clearer because they had no other options. This ended predictably with the tanks and APC's hit with mines and later by Russian drones and artillery.
I also understand that Ukraine lost at least half of the six mine clearing Leopard Tanks and they won't be getting anymore of them soon. That means more armor could be destroyed by these mines and more offensives can be blunted.
As for the offensive itself it has to be seen as a major disappointment so far. Ukraine has not made much progress, only capturing a few villages. Russia has largely survived and held, mostly due to their huge advantage in artillery, air support and drones. Ukraine was probably hoping for a major breakthrough and that does not seem to be happening anytime soon, perhaps never, due to the slow pace of the offensive so far and the extreme casualties.
At first it seemed insane for Ukraine to even bother launching this attack, and even though I understand why they did it now, I still think Ukraine would have been wise to go on the defensive, not offensive. They are attacking the most fortified positions in Ukraine that have been taken by Russia and the results are predictable.
So why attack where Russia is the strongest? It's pretty obvious, they want to cut off Crimea. Crimea is only supplied by one overland highway and the Kerch bridge. If they manage to block off the highway and then destroy the bridge Crimea would be cut off and Russia might be forced to end the war in order to save their people. It's a high risk high reward attack and it at least makes more sense than their idiotic defense of Bakhmut, but it's still not something that they should have done. And if it fails? It will probably be the last gasp of the Ukrainians going on the offensive.
Which is why I don't think any of this aid is going to do much. The immediate aid isn't going to get there fast enough to help the offensive and even if it did (if the aid was pre-staged or something) the Ukrainians are rapidly running out of experienced troops. The 33rd Mech Brigade and 47th Assault Brigade involved in this offensive was western trained and have taken heavy casualties. Given the differences between NATO systems and the Soviet systems most Ukrainians are trained on it will be difficult to reconstitute the brigades decimated in this attack.
And the long term aid? It's only going to be useful if Ukraine has a breakthrough and that seems more and more unlikely every day. Indeed, if the offensive fails I would not be surprised if Ukraine finally decides to come to the negotiating table (assuming Putin even wants to end the war at this point). At the very least serious questions are going to be made in Congress about the unlimited spending we are wasting in Ukraine.
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