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Written by Ahmed Adel, Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher
The Democrat and majority leader of the United States Senate, Chuck Schumer, announced on February 23 during a trip to Lviv that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned him that his country would lose the conflict with Russia without American military aid. Whether Ukraine receives further aid or not will not determine Russia’s final victory, but what can be observed is how opposition to aid for Ukraine is becoming increasingly popular, especially among Republicans.
Days after using the humiliating Ukrainian defeat in Avdeyevka as a pretext to try and pressure Washington to send more weapons, Zelensky is now turning to the influential senator to approve new military and financial aid for Kiev, currently held up in the House of Representatives by the Republican opposition, as soon as possible.
“President Zelensky told me and our delegation that Ukraine will lose the war with dire consequences for the Ukrainian people, the United States, and democracy and freedom without this vital aid,” Schumer wrote on X (formerly Twitter), adding that the House of Representatives must pass the Senate’s national security bill as soon as possible.
Although Schumer’s visit to Ukraine comes after the US Senate passed a $95 billion supplemental funding bill, which includes $60 billion in additional aid to Ukraine and $14.1 billion in security aid to Israel, it was without security measures on the border with Mexico, the main reason the Republicans are still refusing to pass the bill. Reaffirming the Republican commitment to strengthening the US southern border, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, stressed that the House does not plan to review the current legislation after the Senate failed to propose “adequate” provisions on border security.
Another blow to the Democrats desperate endeavour to send more funds and arms to Ukraine is the investigation into more than 50 cases related to US aid provided. Pentagon Inspector General Robert Storch said in a briefing on February 21 that the cases, which are at different stages of the investigation, are looking at issues that include “procurement fraud, product substitution, theft, fraud or corruption, and diversion.”
Storch also warned that there would likely be more investigations into abuses or diversion of equipment from the US “given the quantity and speed” of equipment flowing into Ukraine.
So far, according to the inspector, auditors have discovered “stresses and gaps” in the provision of assistance. For example, audits revealed incomplete manifests for shipments transferred to Kiev through Poland.
Bloomberg reported that in June last year, the cabinet had already signalled that Department of Defense personnel “did not have required visibility and accountability of all types of equipment during the transfer process.”
Storch’s office has more than 200 people involved in overseeing Ukraine and aims to increase the number of people working in Kiev from the current 28, which includes two at the US Embassy in the Ukrainian capital.
Among other ongoing audits, the Pentagon is evaluating issues related to 155mm artillery shells to determine whether the US has met its objectives while balancing the needs of its own reserves, training, and operations. Recently, a Department of Defense report was released in which Storch admits that authorities failed to plan the maintenance and support of weapons and equipment sent to Ukraine.
Entrenched corruption in Ukraine, which is seeing weapons destined for the Ukrainian military end up on the black market, among other major scandals, is only consolidating Republican opposition to support the Kiev regime blindly. This is reflected in an NBC poll released in November, which found that more than half of Republicans opposed aid for Ukraine, a huge increase from the only 9%, according to Pew Research, of Republicans and right-leaning independents who opposed support for Ukraine in March 2022, just weeks after the Russian special military operation began.
Donald Trump is the likely Republican candidate to face Joe Biden in the upcoming US presidential elections, and his “America First” approach to foreign policy clearly resonates with Americans and influences views on the Ukraine war. This is obviously extremely problematic for Zelensky as Trump’s re-election will force Ukraine to end its reckless war with Russia and result in a negotiation that will force Kiev to acknowledge that Crimea, Donbass, Zaporozhye, and Kherson are under Moscow’s sovereignty.
It is recalled that Trump famously said last year: “If I’m president, I will have that war settled in one day, 24 hours.” Although there is much scepticism to this statement, the most important aspect is Trump’s intentions to end the war as quickly as possible, which will include the end of military aid. As Trump leads in the polls, Zelensky and Schumer are desperately trying to get the US to approve more aid for Ukraine, but as said, even if it is eventually approved, it will have no bearing on Russia’s final victory.
ukraine has lost the war since the beginning of the smo, all the destruction, deaths on both sides, the exodus of ukrainians to other countries, the destruction of ukraine’s economy, these are the consequences of the involvement of nato, the eu, the globalists. and all this for the profit of the jews and the americans who own the industry armaments and who made huge profits.
i do not agree. ukraine lost gradually by lack of support from the west.
apparently, they’ve finally learned when to throw a loser over the cliff.
the equipment is also insignificant in that the battle tanks up to the abrams explode and the air defense is destroyed by the missiles they are supposed to repel. like the last resort norwegian nasams.
the west went to war like in afghanistan. russia responded with molten copper, thermobaric bombs and hypersonic missiles. the individual soldier and the tanks are irrelevant. thu support of the west is irrelevant.
when did the eu become war-crazed? the eu has always pushed for immediate peace and negotiations. now the heads of state childishly refuse to answer even putin’s phone call. human dignity and human life have no meaning for western leaders. across the eu. what has happened?
i’m ashamed to be european. only hungary wants immediate peace – that’s why it is barked at and smeared in the west.
schumer’s just trying to cheer me up.
a bit misleading headline. zelensky told that ukraine will lose without us help. actually even with us help i do not see how ukraine would win. us only helps to keep ukraine afloat.
only way ukraine could win.. ukraine defines winning by taking back crimea and east ukraine.. that could only happen through direct intervention of nato and that is not going to happen.
do you think we’re ready to intervene and die over some crimean naval base? only those sicko neocons wanted that, we don’t need it. if i had my way, i’d parachute drop all the neocons onto crimea and let the locals have their way with them.
dumbest goddamn move america ever made. would’ve been like mexico bombing the alamo and trying to take back texas.
and get my name off those tincans!!!! i’m already a laughingstock here wherever it is over vietnam and now this????
you got it totally backwards. neocons are republicans and they want to ditch ukraine for russia, because ukraine does not have enough oil.
you obviously know nothing about the origins of the neocons.
the reason behind the russian sanctions and to the ukrainian conflict is the same as in the destruction of libya. for destroying currencies that threaten the dollar. libya was overthrown because the countries of the middle east planned a gold-linked currency that would have weakened the dollar. the purpose of the sanctions was to topple the brics; russia and china. the fear of brics overrunning the dollar and the dollar’s ability to blackmail developing countries with economic sanctions.
also the eu’s ideological disengagement from arab oil and the three seas initiative. in the eastern ukraine has europe’s largest deposit of earth metal, needed for batteries. because ethnic russians voted “wrong”, the us and ger organized a coup in ukraine in 2014 that used fascist militias to help a pro-nato regime come to power. angela merkel confirms 2022 that nato wanted war from the start but needed time to prepare militarily and lead the situation to a large-scale conflict
hungarian president orban confirmed in an interview with carlson in 2023 that the decision on ukraine joining nato was already made at the 2008 nato summit. ukrainian president poroshenko admitted in 2015 that he got power from a conspiracy and that his presidency was not legitimate. the west cannot win because you can win the battle and even the war, but not the people. that’s why the usa lost in vietnam, somalia, afghanistan, etc.donbas etc are inhabited by ethnic russians
nato was about to take crimea but thank god for russia putin whilst in sochi realized this and was them one step ahead since then the western elite warmongers failed to come up with a proper plan and were outmaneuvered at every turn, the us war depending economy unfortunately will certainly find another proxy with greedy & gullible people willing to die for the american establishment (jews)!
that little piss ant zelensky is trying to sell us another phony bill of goods. “if ukraine loses, putin won’t stop! he’ll be in lisbon next!” i hate little piss ant banderite lickers.
has anyone ever asked zelensky or his supporters what interest does russia have in invading western europe? we’ve no resources to speak of and nothing of interest. why bother?
to ask zelensky anything, you first have to cross his palm with a stack of hundreds.
ukraine will lose nato’s war with or without looting the usa taxpayers the usa congress is living in the past.
it will lose the war with american aid as well.
american promises brought to ukraine by the british trained monkey got them into this war to begin with.