CNN, citing unnamed administration sources, reported yesterday that the White House is preparing yet another arms package for Ukraine which could be ready as early as next week. This time, CNN sources say, it may include the multiple rocket launch systems (MLRS) that the Kyiv regime has been begging for. Dmytro Kuleba, the Kyiv regime’s foreign minister, claimed on Twitter May 26 that the provision of MLRS to the Ukrainian military could help Ukraine repel the Russian offensive, thwart their occupation plans, end torture and prevent a food crisis as if the MLRS were a silver bullet.
Every major weapons system provided to Ukraine so far has been characterized as a “game changer” against the Russian military starting with the much-ballyhooed Javelin anti-tank missile. The Javelin was followed by the Stinger anti-aircraft missile, the Switchblade kamikaze drone, then the M777 155mm howitzer and now the possibly soon to be supplied MLRS. Instead of changing the game, Russian forces destroyed or captured quantities of weapons, posted drone videos of the destruction of a group of M777s. In the process Ukrainian forces surrendered Mariupol to the combined forces of Russia and the Donetsk People’s Republics and are being rolled up in the Donbass region.
“So this would change exactly nothing for Ukraine,” the ASB Military Telegram channel said today of the provision of MLRS. “Ukraine has long range capability, they still have some Tochka-U’s. They’re just not firing them because most of Eastern Ukraine is now under the Russian Air Defense umbrella, Tochkas just get shot down.”
“So in short, the U.S. will send them systems which will be a little bit more precise in terms of the hits, but will not give them longer reach or any real advantage,” ASB concludes.
The panic both in Kyiv and among the regime’s supporters is becoming palpable. Zelenskyy’s aide Oleksiy Arestovych admits that the situation is bad. “We are lagging behind and that makes the situation on the frontlines extremely dire,” he said in an interview that aired on May 25, reported RT. “Recent Russian gains offer a sobering check on expectations for the near term,” tweeted defense analyst Michael Kofman, director of Russian studies at the U.S.-based Center for Naval Analysis (CNA) think-tank, reported Reuters.
The D.P.R. Territorial Defense HQ is reporting huge gains. “As of May 27, the group of D.P.R. and L.P.R. forces with fire support of Russian armed forces have liberated and established full control of 220 townships and towns, including Krasnyi Liman,” it said this morning, reported the Donetsk News Agency (DAN). Krasnyi Liman is an important railway hub in the north of the D.P.R. near Kramatorsk.
D.P.R. leader Denis Pushilin said this morning that about 5,500 Ukrainian troops have surrendered in the D.P.R.. “As for the number, if we talk about the last units of Azov that surrendered at the Azovstal, then this is 2,439 people. And before that there were about 3,000 people. These are joint units of the armed formations of Ukraine,” he said.
