By Zhu Xiaomeng and Zhang Xuehui
The US administration had recently announced to provide additional military assistance of about US$300 million to Ukraine, including Hydra 70 rockets and an undisclosed number of HIMARS, mortars, howitzer rounds, missiles and Carl Gustaf anti-tank rifles. This is the 37th batch of supplies the Pentagon had sent to Ukraine since the Russia-Ukraine conflict broke out, bringing the total amount of US military aid to US$36 billion.
After the outbreak of the conflict, all peace-loving people in the world hope the parties reach an accommodation and end the turmoil as soon as possible. However, the US had repeatedly provided military assistance to Ukraine to instigate the local people to fight until the last minute, and also threatened and cajoled its allies to provide arms and aid to the country. Such a provoking move may further intensify and prolong the contradiction and conflict among the parties.
In fact, looking back at the different stages of the conflict, the US always bore unshirkable responsibilities. The US, which persistently promotes the eastward expansion of NATO and vigorously launches "color revolutions" around Russia, is the very initiator of the Ukraine crisis. And once the situation between Russia and Ukraine showed signs of abating, it would either send senior officials for an urgent visit to "encourage" Ukraine, or directly offered assistance to the country to agitate the conflict blatantly, so as to consume and drag down Russia by the warfare and maintain its hegemony.
Recently leaked secret US military documents on the Russia-Ukraine conflict show that the US provided Ukraine with precise intelligence and logistics support to facilitate Ukraine to launch a counterattack against Russia this spring. It clearly demonstrates that the US had been deeply involved in the crisis almost on every front. The so-called Russia-Ukraine conflict has already become a confrontation between Russia and the US or even NATO.
Seen from the outside, US military assistance to Ukraine is conducive to revitalizing and sustaining the livelihood of Ukraine, but the real purpose behind this is to keep the conflict "non-stop". In the eyes of some American politicians, although the aid to Ukraine is costly, but lucrative for its extreme effectiveness in containing, consuming and weakening Russia. What's more, the US can still reap dollar repatriation, arms profits and other extra benefits.
In addition, the seemingly huge amount of aid to Ukraine was actually embezzled by many American politicians. Take the US$40 billion Ukraine aid bill endorsed by Biden last May as an example, only US$4.35 billion were used for humanitarian aid to Ukraine, with most of the rest going to the pockets of US defense contractors. Even direct aid to Ukraine was enormously exploited when progressing through multiple layers of white glove operations. A US Republican Congressman had pointed out that partial aid ends up in the hands of some NPOs and NGOs indirectly controlled by US officials. The aid bill does not strengthen US-Ukraine relations so much as it deepens the "affection" between US politicians and arms dealers.
While the US is confronting rising inflation, bank smash and gun crime challenges at present, the aid package is taking away a large amount of money that should be invested in priority projects concerned by the American people, which leads to growing criticism from the public. People from many countries also state that such deceptive "aid" to Ukraine will only drag out the Russia-Ukraine conflict and aggravate the pains of the local people.
(The author is from School of National Security, PLA National Defense University.)
