Russian invasion of Ukraine/US Aid to Ukraine

[1]

“ “To my fellow Americans let me just say - you're getting your money’s worth in Ukraine. The Russian military has been degraded by one half. It's been reduced in strength by 50% without a single loss of an American serviceman with less than 3% of our military budget. That is quite a bargain in military terms.”

— Senator Blumenthal [3]

• Luke Coffey, The Top Myths about US Aid to Ukraine

1991

• NEWS ANALYSIS : Bush’s ‘Chicken Kiev’ Talk--an Ill-Fated U.S. Policy : Ukraine: Efforts to keep the Soviet Union intact are recalled with bitterness by some in new nation.
• Chicken Kiev speech given by George H. W. Bush

1994: “You give your nukes to russia, they’ll promise not to invade you. Deal?”

“ The Clinton administration ignored flashing warning signs as it pushed Ukraine hard to accept unilateral disarmament—depriving Kyiv of a deterrent against Russia while providing nothing real to replace it.

— How Bill Clinton Sealed Ukraine’s Fate: The inside story of the Budapest Memorandum of 1994, when Kyiv returned its nuclear weapons to Russia in return for ‘assurances’ from Moscow and Washington.

• Wikipedia:Nunn–Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction#20th century outcome

• How Bill Clinton Sealed Ukraine’s Fate (archive)

• https://twitter.com/Eva_CZ1/status/1697678806163640541

2005: arms destruction

• When Obama Left Ukraine Defenseless (Barack Obama)

• Flashback: Senator Obama pushed bill that helped destroy more than 15,000 TONS of ammunition, 400,000 small arms and 1,000 anti-aircraft missiles in Ukraine

• Lugar and Obama Urge Destruction of Conventional Weapons Stockpiles

• https://twitter.com/igorsushko/status/1695887613213999336

2009-2017: Obama administration

Alter Egos: Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and the Twilight Struggle Over American Power

• It's hard to overstate how utterly incompetent the Obama admin was on foreign policy. Syria and Ukraine are his legacy. And he still likes about them, even going so far as to repeat Kremlin talking points.

2014-2017: non-lethal aid

• Ukraine president secures U.S. military aid but not weapons, September 18, 2014

• Poroshenko asks Obama for weapons, obtains blankets, September 19, 2014

• Fact-checking Trump’s claim that Obama gave Ukraine ‘pillows and sheets’ (fact-check: true)

• In a Groundbreaking Deal, Ukraine May Buy US Armor for Its Humvees

• Ukraine to Get More U.S. Aid, but Not Weapons; Obama Refuses to Budge on Lethal Aid Despite Poroshenko’s Passionate Plea in Congress

• “U.S. hands over armored military vehicles to Ukraine”, March 25, 2015 “The U.S. aid for Ukraine’s army will include 30 heavily armored Humvees and 200 other regular Humvees, as well as small drones, radios, counter-mortar radars and other equipment. All of the aid is nonlethal, and the drones are not armed.”

2017-2021, Trump presidency

• On the record: The U.S. administration’s actions on Russia

• But while there is evidence that the Javelin sale has been a powerful gesture of support for Kyiv, the missiles’ military application has been far more limited. Under the conditions of the foreign military sale, the Trump administration stipulates that the Javelins must be stored in western Ukraine—hundreds of miles from the battlefield.

2022-2023

• It’s Costing Peanuts for the US to Defeat Russia

• David Wiley, “Libertarian alternatives to war with Russia”

• Three in four Americans say U.S. should support Ukraine despite Russian threats, Reuters/Ipsos poll shows

• Is the United States Running out of Weapons to Send to Ukraine?

• Randy Mott, “There is a major misconception the US is providing a big majority of the aid to UKR. This is only true of mil aid & because only the US had unused stores of the necessary eqpt. ”, March 7, 2023 (thread) (pdf)

• https://twitter.com/randymot4/status/1675104052588298242

• https://twitter.com/randymot4/status/1634630833041551360

• US military aid to Ukraine so far: $27.5 billion. This is just 3.2% of our 2023 defense budget. With these weapons, Ukraine is rapidly degrading Russia’s military capacity, which will take many years to restore, if ever.

• Fact Check: Have U.S. Taxpayers Sent Over $200B to Ukraine?

• https://protectukrainenow.org/en/report

• How Much Aid Has the U.S. Sent Ukraine? Here Are Six Charts.

2023

• At U.S. behest, Ukraine held off anniversary attacks on Russia

• The Past, Present, and Future of U.S. Assistance to Ukraine: A Deep Dive into the Data

• Use of Presidential Drawdown Authority for Military Assistance for Ukraine

Objections and counter-arguments

[2]

• The US steals over 6 trillion USD annually. You have a very specific objection to a rounding error amount that is being used to stop genocide.

• Elon Musk is trying to “sell” his useless Twitter’s Blue Mark for $0.23 cents a day, comparing it to a cup of coffee which is $1.38 per day. Meanwhile, supporting Ukrainian sovereignty and stopping russian genocide costs approximately $0.14 cents a day!

• This is how I see this argument. A woman is being raped. Someone grabs a rusty old government crowbar and smashes the rapist. You object because you paid .0001 cent for that crowbar at some point in the past.

• Ten Myths about US Aid to Ukraine

• Why I’m ashamed to be a libertarian

• Sending Fighter Jets To Ukraine Raises The Specter Of The Cold War “The proposed arms shipments are significantly less provocative than the Soviets killing Americans in North Korea and Vietnam.” [4]

• It’s just so damn surreal to go online and see tweets about Russians setting up literal torture chambers for CHILDREN and then also tweets from annoyed “middle-class American taxpayers” who are pissed of that a tiny fraction of their taxes is helping us end this nightmare sooner. Torture chambers. For kids. Think about it, then think about your own kids (or, idk, about your younger sibling or even just about yourself as a kid) and stop whining and harassing Ukrainians online.

• https://twitter.com/randymot4/status/1709847619344711976

• 🧵As Congress debates additional support for Ukraine, the anti-Ukraine swamp will fill their echo chamber by peddling myths and half-truths. Here are the facts👇

• To halt the resurgence of Russian imperialism, Ukraine is paying with the lives of its sons and daughters. To halt the resurgence of Russian imperialism, the US is paying with a modest percentage of its overall defense budget, much of it going to American manufacturers.

• Ukraine aid’s best-kept secret: Most of the money stays in the U.S.A.

Benefits for the USA

• Timothy Snyder, “I have been hearing the idea from some Republicans that Ukrainian resistance comes at a cost to Americans. Nothing could be more wrong. Ukrainian resistance provides extraordinary security benefits to Americans” (thread) (pdf)

• This is the ‘America First’ case for supporting Ukraine

• https://twitter.com/randymot4/status/1679897994714394638

• The bottom line on the “costs” supporting Ukraine: 1️⃣ Zero American service members in combat. 2️⃣ Zero American service members killed in Ukraine. 3️⃣ A very small percentage of the American defense budget has been spent to assist Ukraine’s military. 4️⃣ The Ukrainian military, in defense of their homeland, is systematically dismantling Putin’s Army. Good deal for America and all who love freedom.

• https://twitter.com/ReneDuba/status/1707847710814920893

• Ukraine aid’s best-kept secret: Most of the money stays in the U.S.A.

Ideas

• Five Ways to Help Ukraine Win

Opinion polls

• Americans’ Favorable Rating of Russia Sinks to New Low of 9%

• A new survey from the @ReaganInstitute finds that three-quarters of Americans think it’s important to the U.S. that Ukraine wins the war against Russian aggression. That includes 86% of Democrats and 71% of Republicans. Nearly 60% support sending U.S. military aid to Ukraine, a figure that has held roughly steady since a November 2022 survey.

• Most Americans support US arming Ukraine, Reuters/Ipsos poll shows

• https://www.reaganfoundation.org/reagan-institute/about/press-releases/rri-summer-survey/

Other countries’ aid

Estonia

• The government decided today to send #Estonia’s biggest aid package of heavy weapons so far to #Ukraine. This takes our total military aid to Ukraine over 1% of our GDP.

More

• Garry Kasparov, “A History of Betrayal: Biden’s Team Keeps Negotiating About Ukraine Without Ukraine”

• White House freezes Ukraine military package that includes lethal weapons, June 18, 2021

• How successive U.S. administrations resisted arming Ukraine, March 5, 2022

• Poroshenko welcomes shipment of U.S. Humvees

• Seeks US Weapons at Middle East Arms Expo, February 24, 2014

• “U.S. Humvees Arrive In Ukraine”, March 26, 2015 “Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko welcomed the first 10 Humvees provided by the U.S. as part of non-lethal military aid. The vehicles were handed over to units which are fighting Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. It’s expected that a total of 230 Humvees will be delivered within the next 45 days.”

• First U.S. Armored HMMWVs Arrive in Ukraine, Greeted by President Poroshenko, March 25, 2015

• Randy Mott, “A new theme is to force Ukraine to make peace. This is undoubtedly one of the dumbest ideas to emerge from the war. The Gaetz proposal would cut off US aid (now audited)to try to force a peace deal. This thread sets out the reasons why this is nonsense”, February 10, 2023 (thread) (pdf) (Matt Gaetz)

• Randy Mott, "Time for new report on aid to UKR & continued audit/oversight underway. "There has likely never been more accountability or transparency measures in place for US foreign assistance than what is available for Ukraine aid."

• A must watch for those souls that pretend democrats have been anti-Putin or anti-ruzzia. Spoiler alert, no, they didn't do anything to stop Putin when they could.
  • Putin and the Presidents: Julia Ioffe (interview) | FRONTLINE

See also

• russian invasion of Ukraine/Reasons

• World War II/US Aid to the Soviet Union