Summary

  • US Defense Department to provide Ukraine with a $2.3 billion aid package, focusing on air defense interceptors.
  • Ukraine’s exhausted air defenses need replenishment to counter Russia’s attacks on civilian targets.
  • Americans support arming Ukraine but are concerned that current constraints and delays are not meeting Ukraine’s needs.

Although some are skeptical after the recent Russian cruise missile attack on Kyiv, Ukraine’s Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital – the US Defense Department’s Press Secretary Air Force Major General (Maj. Gen.) Pat Ryder back on July 2 held a press briefing. The Major General made clear Ukraine will soon receive a package worth $2.3 Billion US Dollars, with a focus on air defense.

$2.3 Billion package focused on air defense interceptors

As Maj. Gen. Ryder made clear in a July 2 press briefing,

“Air defense is a capability that we recognize Ukraine needs and so we’re working with allies and partners throughout the world to identify capabilities and get those to them as quickly as — as possible.”

Although air defense is not the only element of the $2.3 billion package of aid, it is clear that Ukraine needs not just to reequip its Patriot missile batteries but also obtain more to defend the nation-state from an enemy that sorties strategic bombers to attack Ukrainian cities. One should note that Ukraine has received as of April 24, $44.9 billion of military aid from 20 Mi-17 helicopters as pictured in the cover photo above, tanks, water trailers, over 2,000 Stinger man-portable-air-defenses (MANPADs), many unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), a Patriot batter, artillery aid, radars and the 12 National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) and munitions like the AIM-120 fireed in the picture below for starters.

7795422 - Norwegian Army NASAMS launch during exercise Formidable Shield 2023 [Image 1 of 3]

Photo: U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa/U.S. Sixth Fleet

For the purposes of this article, we will focus on air defense.

The need for air defense

According to an April 15 PBS News report, days before the US Congress reauthorized aid to Ukraine Ukrainian President Zelensky explained his air defense problem,

“I will give you one very simple example: the Trypilska power plant. Electricity in the Kyiv region depends on it. Eleven missiles were headed towards it. The first seven, we took down. Four destroyed Trypilska. Why? Because we had zero missiles. We ran out of all missiles.”

Hence, the Ukrainian air defense successes of previous months have been replaced by exhausted air defenses. As Ukraine’s currently gifted and on-hand air defense supplies are exhausting, Russia continues her sinful attacks on civilian targets. Below, one can see a slice of the graphic results:

In response, US President Joe Biden said in part,

“Russia’s missile strikes that today killed dozens of Ukrainian civilians and caused damage and casualties at Kyiv’s largest children’s hospital are a horrific reminder of Russia’s brutality. It is critical that the world continues to stand with Ukraine at this important moment and that we not ignore Russian aggression. … The United States stands with the people of Ukraine.”

However, Russian attacks of civilian targets does include the February 2022 destruction of the An-225 Myria as pictured below;

American citizens stand with Ukraine, but…

Indeed, United States’ citizens do stand with the people of Ukraine. On the evening of July 8, spontaneous rallies broke out condemning Russia like the one pictured below in Seattle by Ukraine Defense Support:

There is desire for arming Ukraine from The Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, an independent, nonpartisan research organization involved in airpower advocacy. In a recent policy paper, the Mitchell Institute recommended;

“The United States should immediately remove constraints on U.S. weapons that would help Ukraine defend itself against its much more powerful and well-equipped invader. These constraints disproportionally advantage Russia by ceding them a sanctuary from which to operate.”

Additionally, Lt Gen David A. Deptula, USAF (Ret.), Dean of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies and others such as Gen Philip M. Breedlove, USAF (Ret.); Gen Tod Wolters, USAF (Ret.), the 19th Supreme Allied Commander Europe of NATO Allied Command Operations; and Gen Jeffrey Harrigian, USAF (Ret.), former Commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe and U.S. Air Forces Africa, offered their perspectives in the below YouTube.

In the discussion, former USAF Gen Breedlove, the 17th Supreme Allied Commander Europe of NATO Allied Command Operations, made the following statement about how the United States, if fighting Russia, would want more.

“We recently had a White House spokesperson John Kirby saying publicly that we’re giving Ukraine everything that it needs to win. I could not disagree with John more – he used to work with me and for me, and I know him well, but he’s now in a very political position and he’s carrying a political message. We are not giving Ukraine everything they need.”

Breedlove then spoke of the need for, “an integrated ability to hold Russian targets at risk before the Russian forces can be brought to bear on Ukraine” as if the United States was fighting Russia. Clearly, US “self-limiting” policy of restraining Ukrainian reply to these attacks, plus delays in providing air defense ammunition, is not ending the harms to civilians.

Bottom line

It seems clear that Americans are mostly unified in wanting Ukraine to prevail and be armed to self-defend sufficiently. The problem is that limits on using arms and the speed of supply of air defenses hindered by the US Congress are not meeting Ukraine’s needs.

What more can the United States do to protect Ukraine? Please share in the thread.

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