An Ukrainian serviceman mans an anti-drone system. Fox News/Getty.
The Biden Administration is sending another $725 million worth of weapons to Ukraine before the Trump Administration takes over. Fox News. The weapons will include anti-tank weapons, artillery, drones, HMARS rockets, and land mines, to be used the Kursk incursion. Trump has been skeptical of funding the war and vowed to end it, perhaps even before he enters office. Trump's VP had suggested Ukraine trade land to Russia in exchange for a DMZ, a proposal that Zelensky rejected. Ukraine has been attempting to join NATO in their own effort to end the war, an effort that is unlikely to succeed.
My Comment:
Hopefully this is the last shipment of weapons that Biden is able to send. He is running out of time, he's got less than two months to continue his Ukraine policy before Trump takes over. But Biden seems determined to continue the war in Ukraine, a war that has already been lost.
Most of these weapons are not really going to have much of an effect. Russia will continue to have their advantage in artillery and weapons like the HMARS system have not proven effective. That isn't to say that the Ukrainians don't need these weapons, their stocks are absolutely low. But nothing we are sending in this package will actually change the real problems with the Ukrainian military.
Ukraine's biggest problem is they are running out of men. They have, so far, not drafted young men for demographic reasons. There simply isn't many young men in the country, they had a big fertility drop about 20 years ago, which means that generation of men is small.
But they are also running out of the older men that have born the brunt of this conflict. The average age of the soldiers in Ukraine is absurdly old, around 40, and that is probably getting worse, not better. Ukraine has been taking huge casualties and now many soldiers are deserting. A few new weapons won't fix these problems.
What is surprising is the inclusion of land mines in this package. The left has long been against land mines, largely because they can cause injuries and death long after the war is over. But that is apparently not a problem anymore. Of course there are already probably millions of land mines being used by both sides in the war so adding a few more won't do much. But it's odd that the left isn't more upset by this. It's just another example of the left abandoning things they believe when it is politically expedient to do so.
As for Ukraine itself, it's unclear what will happen there long term. Nobody really knows what Trump is going to do. But I don't think it's going to be the continuation of Biden's policy. Trump wants the war to end, and failing that, he wants America to stop spending money there. I think Trump views the Ukraine conflict a distraction from the domestic policy he wants to put into place. He is going to try and cut a deal between Ukraine and Russia and if Ukraine won't play ball he will cut them off. I do wonder what happens if Russia is the one that decides to be obstinate. Russia has little reason to end the war at this point and they are probably not going to agree to any deal that can be undone after Trump is out of office.
Regardless though, the status quo won't remain. This will likely be the least weapons that Ukraine can expect from the United States anytime soon. They will still get weapons from other NATO countries but that's about it, unless Trump makes some kind of bizarre policy reversal.
Finally, I do worry that Joe Biden will continue to do stupid things to try and sabotage the Trump administration. The use of long range missiles directly controlled by US satellites was an act of war against Russia and I worry that he will do something even worse. January 20th can't come soon enough.
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