The U.S. has announced another package of weapons and munitions for Ukraine worth about $500 million “to meet Ukraine’s critical security and defense needs as part of the surge of security assistance the President directed to put Ukraine in the best possible position,” claims a Pentagon statement. The package, to be drawn from Pentagon stocks, is to provide Ukraine additional capabilities to meet its most urgent needs, including: missiles for air defense; air-to-ground munitions; and equipment to support Ukraine’s use of F-16s.
The Pentagon announcement was timed to coincide with the 25th meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, where the participants approved the roadmaps “on future force development through 2027” developed by the eight subgroups, called Capability Coalitions. “These roadmaps are a substantial step forward in our countries’ support for Ukraine, inform the Capability Coalitions’ continuing work, as well as send an important demand signal to defense industry,” reported another Pentagon statement. “With an eye to these capability targets for 2027, our countries plan to work closely with Ukraine to identify how to meet these benchmarks, balancing both Ukraine’s wartime and future force requirements, through our respective national donations, procurements, investments, and efforts to expand defense industrial base capacity, including by leveraging Ukraine’s domestic defense industry production and sustainment capabilities.”
In other words: “Trump-proofing.”
The Ramstein meeting was also the scene of the last official meeting between U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Zelenskyy, among other things, was pushing Ukraine’s nonexistent victory in Russia’s Kursk region in order to motivate his Western backers to keep the weapons flowing to Ukraine. Zelenskyy called the Kursk offensive “one of our biggest wins” that has cost Russia as well as North Korea, which sent thousands of troops to help Russia in Kursk, reported AP. Zelenskyy said the offensive resulted in North Korea suffering 4,000 casualties, but U.S. estimates put the number lower, at about 1,200. Reports out of the region, however, indicate that Russian forces completely defeated the Ukrainian offensive.
