Ukraine faces collapse if the United States Congress does not decide to extend military and economic aid to Kiev, The Washington Post reported, citing American officials.
U.S. officials are painting grim scenarios in Ukraine if military aid requested by President Joe Biden does not materialize, including a catastrophic collapse of Ukrainian front lines and massive casualties.
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CIA Director William Burns warned that without US help, territorial losses for Ukraine this year would be “significant” and that time was running out.
Hoping to keep the public focus on Congress, administration officials have refused to talk openly about alternative realities for Ukraine. But they are clearly aware that the prospects for Kiev are extremely bleak.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned that dwindling air defense supplies are making Russia’s regular airstrikes more deadly. On the front line, troops distribute artillery shells.
The United States is Ukraine’s largest military backer. As Europe races to ramp up production, it has delivered only a third of the shells it promised for this year.
Meanwhile, Russia, in addition to its massive manpower advantage, is flooding Ukraine with drones and is on track to produce 2.7 million missiles, according to Olha Stefanyshyn, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister for European and Euro-Atlantic integration. “Ukraine’s resilience should not be taken for granted,” she says.
The Ukrainians failed to achieve their goal last year of threatening Russia’s land corridor to occupied Crimea, and weeks ago they lost the town of Avdeyevka after heavy fighting.
Even as Russia faces a vast web of Western sanctions, its president, Vladimir Putin, has managed to channel resources into the production of missiles, tanks and other equipment. He also persuaded allies Iran and North Korea for arms supplies.
Russian airstrikes will also take more and more casualties. Ukrainian politicians have told European and US officials that ammunition for some of their anti-missile defense systems may run out by the end of this month. Ukraine is trying to shoot down 4 out of every 5 missiles launched, but if it doesn’t get ammunition, it will soon be able to shoot down only 1 out of 5. And this will have disastrous consequences in large densely populated cities.
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2024-03-16 09:31:00
#Washington #Post #Ukraine #verge #collapse
