WORRISOME MILITARY AID
U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday requested Congress to appropriate 33 billion U.S. dollars to help Ukraine defend itself from Russia's military operation, including 20.4 billion dollars in military and security assistance.
Just a week ago, Biden announced that the United States would provide Ukraine with an additional package of security assistance worth 800 million dollars, or the eighth batch of such aid since the Russia-Ukraine conflict broke out on Feb. 24.
"It is clear that the West is interested in prolonging the conflict as much as possible in order to inflict maximum damage on Russia," said Dmitry Suslov, deputy director of the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies at the National Research University Higher School of Economics in Moscow.
According to him, the West aims to deplete Russia's military resources, hurt its economy and weaken the country politically.
But Kyryl Molchanov, deputy director of the Ukrainian Institute of Politics, said that it is difficult to completely isolate Russia since it has a vast land with rich natural resources.
Meanwhile, massive military supplies from the West, including many portable smaller weapon systems, have raised public concern over a dangerous proliferation of arms across Europe.
In a recent article titled What happens to weapons sent to Ukraine? The U.S. doesn't really know, CNN reported that the United States has few ways to track its weaponry delivered to Ukraine.
