Meeting of U.S.-Led Ukraine Defense Contact Group
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Mark Milley headed up the U.S.-led Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting held in Ramstein, Germany on April 21. Some 50 countries attended. Austin emphasized the military hardware sent by the Contact Group to Ukraine to date: 1,550 armored vehicles, 230 tanks, as well as equipment and munitions to support more than 9 new armored brigades. He said that the U.S. has moved up the delivery date for M2 Abrams tanks to sometime this fall, with training of Ukrainian crews to begin in Germany as early as mid-May.
Milley said the U.S. had committed
more than $35 billion in military assistance including over
two million tank and artillery rounds, tens of thousands of
anti-armor weapons, air defence systems (Patriot missile
systems) as well as training of thousands of Ukrainian
forces. Reports highlight the fact that the Defense Contact
Group does not say for example that the Leopard tanks being
sent to Ukraine are a logistical nightmare as each country
supplying tanks has their own firing systems with unique
maintenance requirements and shells manufactured to
different specifications. In answer to questions from media
about providing F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, Milley and
Austin said that while the decision may yet be made sometime
in future, it was not on the agenda now. They said that "to
take the Ukrainian Air Force from where it is today and to
build it up to match the Russian Air Force" would be "a
significant level of effort by lots of countries." Right now
they said, the immediate need is air defence.
Israeli and Ukrainian officials told U.S. media outlet Axios on April 20 that the Israeli military intends to test its early warning system in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev next month and make it operational for the Ukrainian army by summer.
The Kyiv Independent discusses the prospects of a Ukrainian counteroffensive and while citing NATO confidence that Ukraine can retake some territories currently controlled by Russia, it says the logistics alone of supplying such an offensive with the wherewithal to succeed are beyond Ukraine's capabilities.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that at the
upcoming NATO Summit meeting in Vilnius, Lithuania in July,
two items on the agenda will be 1) to reaffirm NATO's
support for Ukraine for as long as it takes and 2) that he
expects "NATO Allies to agree a multi-year program to help
Ukraine transition from Soviet-era equipment, standards,
doctrines, to NATO standards and doctrines, and to ensure
full interoperability between Ukrainian forces and NATO
forces."
Following the meeting, Canada's Defence Minister Anita
Anand announced that Canada is providing a "new military aid
package for Ukraine." She announced a $34.6 million
allocation to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
Ukraine Comprehensive Assistance Package (CAP) Trust Fund.
She called it a "donation" which makes it sound charitable.
She said the "donation" will "enable the implementation of
the NATO CAP fuel material project, which will provide
Ukraine with 3.3 million litres of much-needed fuel
supplies; enable the implementation of the NATO CAP Improved
Ribbon Bridge project -- which will provide Ukraine with
modular flotation bridge assets to enable wet-gap crossing;
and provide a first contribution to the NATO CAP medical
first aid kits project." This is all said to be "non-lethal
aid" which creates the impression that it is humanitarian in
nature and diverts from the essential aim which is to
further the aims of the U.S./NATO proxy war in Ukraine which
is the cause of the humanitarian crisis in that country.
Anand also announced approximately $2.5 million for forty
.50 caliber sniper rifles, ammunition and spare parts from
PGW Defence Technologies Inc. The Canadian government has
been sending PGW sniper rifles to Ukraine since at least
2018 in the context of Canada's buildup of troops on
Russia's borders and its training of Ukraine's military to
suppress the dissent of its own people in Donbass and other
areas to the neo-Nazi backed coup government. In 2018 when
the owner of PGW was asked by CBC if he was concerned that
selling weapons to Ukraine would escalate the conflict
there, he said: "It may sound callous, but [I'm] not
particularly [concerned]. Since the dawn of time, mankind
has been engaged in war, and part of that is equipping
yourself properly." Besides contributing to the escalation
of the conflict, these remarks confirm the fraud that these
arms shipments are for defence and supposedly aimed at
responding to Russian aggression, rather than part of
aggression instigated by NATO in Eastern Europe. CBC
reported at that time that the .50 caliber sniper rifle was
the first outcome of the Trudeau government's decision to
start exporting light weapons to Ukraine.
Anand also used the occasion to highlight Canada's
announcement on April 11 that Canada will donate more than
21,000 small arms to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, including
assault rifles, machine guns, and over 2.4 million rounds of
small arms ammunition, sourced from Colt Canada and valued
at approximately $59 million.[1]
In a news release, Anand again spread the disinformation
that "the donations and support" announced by Canada "will
help ensure that Ukraine has what it needs to defend its
sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity." In
fact, the instigation of the conflict by Canada on its own
and within NATO and its involvement in a U.S./NATO proxy war
being fought "to the last Ukrainian," violates international
law and is a crime against the peace and humanity. The
peoples of Europe are fighting against the anarchy and
violence imposed as a result of the war on their own
countries as well. Canada's support for the neo-Nazis who
were used to carry out the 2014 Maidan Coup in Ukraine and
commit heinous crimes against the Russian-speaking
population in Donbass is already common knowledge and will
be universally condemned in due course. Attempting to seize
victory from the jaws of defeat is a task Canada will not
manage because the cause is unjust and it will continue to
be condemned not only by world public opinion but by all
those who lives have been sacrificed on the altar of
attempts to crush Russia. While the U.S./NATO gangsters and
their representatives in the government of Canada itself are
putting more pressure on Canada to send more money and arms
and put more resources towards continuing the war, the idea
that the issue is whether to send more or less war materiel
to combat Russian aggression is integral to the official
attempt to disinform Canadians so that they cannot find
their bearings and oppose the nefarious role Canada is
playing.
This article was published in
Volume 53 Number 4 - April 2023
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2023/Articles/M5300414.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca