Ukraine is losing Donbas and President Zelenskyy says Russia controls about 20% of Ukraine. Weapons and cash that the US and EU sent to Ukraine without any oversight are falling into the hands of criminals. It’s another Biden-led mess.
THE WEAPONS IN THE BLACK HOLE
Sen. Rand Paul tried to get some oversight of the weapons sent to Ukraine. There was zero oversight. Paul couldn’t convince his colleagues of the need, although they are now expressing concern, after billions of dollars went out.
Europe is deeply concerned that the weapons are about to flood into the EU. Some in Ukraine are selling them on the blackmarket. Criminals are getting their hands on them.
Politicians, like Elizabeth Warren, are finally showing concern.
Sen. Warren (D-Mass.), a member of the Armed Services Committee, said in an email that a full accounting of the already-appropriated funding will be “critically important for both past and future funding requests.”
“The U.S. government is sending billions in humanitarian, economic, and military assistance to help the Ukrainian people overcome Putin’s brutal war. And the American people expect strong oversight by Congress and full accounting from the Department of Defense,” she added.
Again this is after $50 billion or more in weapons and cash were already sent.
Ukraine Might Use US Missiles to Strike Crimea?
The US is sending drones and long-range rockets, despite Russia saying this could lead to direct war. Biden sent them on a promise from Ukraine President Zelenskyy to Secretary of State Antony Blinken that they wouldn’t use them to hit Russia. However, a top Ukraine official now says they may use them against Crimea, which is considered Russian territory since 2014.
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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called Ukraine’s repeated push for more weapons a “direct provocation intended to draw the West into the fighting.” He warned that U.S.-supplied multiple rocket launchers would raise the risk of an expanded conflict.
Ukrainian Presidential Adviser Alexey Arestovich allegedly said on Thursday that Crimea belongs to Ukraine. That’s according to Russian media.
“Crimea is ours. It belongs to Ukraine. And they [Russia] know it. Therefore, it will fly to Crimea double-time, should the need arise”, he pointed out, alleging that Kiev has already successfully struck targets on the peninsula.
The War Isn’t Going Well
Ukraine President Zelenskyy said they are losing 60-100 soldiers a day.
Ukrainians fled the front-line towns in eastern Ukraine as Russian forces sought to push beyond the city of Severodonetsk.
Kyiv retreated and moved on, attempting to break the Russian defenses in areas where Moscow’s occupying forces are more thinly stretched.
The battle for the eastern Donbas region is inflicting heavy casualties on both sides and has uprooted tens of thousands of civilians seeking to escape the intense fighting.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in a speech to Luxembourg’s Parliament on Thursday, said that Russia controls about 20% of Ukrainian territory and that the front line stretches for more than 600 miles.
The town of Pokrovsk, 80 miles southwest of Severodonetsk, has become a temporary refuge for hundreds of people who each day are fleeing areas increasingly being shelled by Russian forces looking to expand their offensive in Donbas, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Britain pledged Thursday to send sophisticated medium-range rocket systems to Ukraine. They are joining the United States and Germany in equipping the embattled nation with advanced weapons. They will shoot down aircraft and knock out artillery.
Western arms have kept the war going for 99 days.
Russian forces closed in on a key city in recent days. As a result, the Ukrainian government said its fighters needed better rocket launchers to prevail. “This pumping of Ukraine with weapons… will bring more suffering to Ukraine, which is merely a tool in the hands of those countries that supply it with weapons,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, reports CBS.
Russia Is Winning in Donbas
Russia is in control of Kherson and Zaporozhye. The Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions are strategically important to Russia for many reasons. First, they are part of the land corridor between Crimea and Rostov. Second, the area encompassing the Donbass and southern Ukraine, which was historically called Novorossiya, is, unlike Crimea, an industrial and agricultural powerhouse, according to state propaganda outlet RT.
Russia claims they will first restore order and then possibly hold a referendum on joining Russia.
Russia isn’t done and appears ready to move beyond Donbas.
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