Washington [US]: The Biden administration’s attempt to secure more than $30 billion in additional defense and economic aid for Ukraine will further enrich the stockholders of major US defense contractors while having a negligible effect on the battlefield, analysts told Sputnik.
On Thursday, President Joe Biden asked US Congress for $33 billion in emergency supplemental funding to support Ukraine, including $20 billion for military assistance.
So far, the package appears to have won broad bipartisan support among US lawmakers. The request comes on top of about $4 billion in military aid the Biden administration has already committed to Ukraine, $3.4 billion of which came after Russia launched its military operation in late February.
“The most immediate impact will be to further enrich shareholders in US defense industries and the politicians who represent their interests in Washington, DC,” retired US Army colonel, historian, and tactician Douglas Macgregor told Sputnik.
With very few exceptions, the former Trump administration Pentagon adviser added, the vast majority of the equipment and weapons on their way to Ukraine will have “at most” a modest effect on the fighting in Eastern Ukraine.
“The Russians know where the material will be stored and how it will be shipped eastward,” Macgregor said. “As a result, much of it will be destroyed or end up sitting in isolated warehouses hundreds of miles from the scene of the action.”
Historian and political commentator Dan Lazare sees the $33 billion allocations as a sign that the war is morphing from a regional to an international conflict involving both NATO and the United States.
“The more fuel Biden throws on the fire, the greater the likelihood of the war spreading beyond its original boundaries,” Lazare told Sputnik. “If Moldova is somehow dragged in due to those mysterious explosions in Transnistria, then all bets are off as to what will follow.”
Lazare said there is also a chance the rest of the NATO alliance will plunge into the conflict.
“If so, it’s 1914 all over again – only this time with nukes. This is madness, needless to say,” Lazare said.
Lazare thinks 95 percent of the blame lies with US Democrats who have been on an anti-Russia crusade for a decade.
“Words have consequences,” he said. “Years of Kremlin-bashing have finally led to a real-life European war that is raging out of control.”
Meanwhile, Lazare added, the more Biden tries to outrun his problems at home, the more acute they grow. And now, the expert said, Biden appears to be pinning his hopes on some sort of “epic victory in Ukraine.”
“But that’s obviously not going happen since Russia will either take all of the southern and eastern parts of the country or the war will turn into a long and bloody stalemate,” Lazare said. “If so, the effect will be to heighten the contradictions to the breaking point.”
