As the war in Ukraine continues over time, the sustainability of Western aid to kyiv is increasingly being questioned. For his part, Volodymyr Zelensky assures that he wants to do everything to obtain new anti-aircraft systems from the West before winter and face a possible new campaign of massive Russian bombings.
Joe Biden worried about assistance to Ukraine
Joe Biden, who for the first time showed his concern on the subject on Wednesday October 4, promised a “major speech” to demonstrate that it was “extremely important” to continue to support Ukraine militarily and financially. The Democratic president also admitted that the chaos within the Republican Party, which is paralyzing one of the chambers of the American Congress, “worried” him about the future of this assistance.
The Republican leader of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, was ousted from his post on Tuesday due to a revolt by elected officials from the right wing of the Republican Party, who are particularly opposed to the release of additional funds for Kiev. “This worries me but I know that there is a majority of elected officials in the House of Representatives and the Senate, in both parties, who have said that they support funding aid to Ukraine” , said Joe Biden.
“I am always worried about a dysfunction,” he said again, the day after this historic dismissal. Without repeating his usual assurances that the United States would continue to support Kiev “as long as necessary”, the American president instead insisted that it was “in the interest (of the country) that Ukraine succeeds” in the face of Russia’s invasion.
US supplies Iranian munitions to kyiv
Washington announced on Wednesday that it had given Ukraine small-calibre munitions that had been seized during their transfer from Iran to the Houthi rebels in Yemen, which Tehran supports. The United States transferred “approximately 1.1 million rounds of 7.62 mm ammunition to the Ukrainian armed forces” on Monday, the US military command for the Middle East (Centcom) said in a statement.
These munitions were seized by the US Navy in December 2022 while they were being transferred to the Houthis in Yemen by the Revolutionary Guards, the ideological army of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Centcom explained. The transfer was in violation of a UN Security Council resolution.
Ukraine wants to get new anti-aircraft systems before winter
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky assured Wednesday that his country was doing “everything” to obtain new anti-aircraft systems from the West before winter to face a possible new campaign of massive Russian bombings. “We are doing everything to provide Ukraine with more air defense systems before winter. And now we are waiting for certain decisions from our partners,” the Ukrainian president said in his evening video speech posted on social networks.
He also called for works to be “carried out as soon as possible” to ensure the protection and reconstruction of critical infrastructure in Ukrainian cities. Russia carried out a campaign of massive bombing of Ukrainian infrastructure in the winter of 2022, regularly plunging millions of people into the cold and the dark.
Westerners have provided Ukraine with anti-aircraft systems, including powerful American Patriot batteries, but these defenses are not always enough to intercept all Russian drones and missiles. At the same time, Ukraine is carrying out its own drone strikes and bombings, which have become almost daily, of targets in Russia.