Facing a major new offensive by Russian forces, Ukraine is in desperate need of new weapons. President Joe Biden must stop making them beg.
The Biden administration insists that it is rushing the delivery of all the weapons Ukraine needs. Officials say that where U.S. weapons are incompatible with Ukraine’s needs, the United States will facilitate alternate deliveries from other nations. And to be fair to Biden, he has taken some positive new steps. These include the announcement this week of an additional $800 million in military aid for Ukraine that includes tactical drones, armored vehicles, and cannon artillery.
But there are two major problems with the White House’s strategy. First, Biden’s announcement is at least two weeks late. Russia’s impending offensive in eastern and southeastern Ukraine has been anticipated for at least that long. Second, the administration is providing Ukraine with an utterly inadequate scale and diversity of weapons.
Instead of the U.S. cannon artillery that Ukraine is set to receive, it needs multiple launch rocket systems. The M142 or older M270 systems would allow Ukraine to saturate Russian offensive lines with blistering long-range rocket fire. The impact on already fleeting Russian morale would be significant. Unfortunately, the Biden administration’s excessive fear of provoking Russian escalation likely drove its decision to provide Ukraine with less useful cannon artillery.
In March, the risk-averse White House refused to facilitate the delivery of fighter jets to Ukraine, creating considerable tension. It now seems likely that other NATO member states will supply Ukraine with jets. At a minimum, Biden should put his full support behind the nations that step forward to fill the existing leadership vacuum.
When it comes to tanks, the U.S. has more limited options than other Eastern European nations. That’s because the Ukrainian military knows how to use Russian-made tanks, such as the T-72, and armored personnel carriers of the BMP class. Still, the U.S. should offer Ukraine more than the 200 M113 armored infantry vehicles it pledged this week. (The U.S. has more than 5,000 of these older vehicles in stock.)
Britain is now providing Harpoon missiles to Ukraine, and the U.S. should do the same. The Harpoon system is old, but it carries a heavy warhead. An apparently successful Ukrainian strike on a Russian warship in the Black Sea this week has already seen the Russian Navy retreat from the coast. Harpoons would advance that positive development.
Giving Ukraine advanced, integrated air defense systems, such as the Patriot or Iron Dome, is impractical thanks to the complexity of operating these systems and their enabling radar. The risk of Russian forces capturing those weapons and transferring their technology to China would also be a serious problem. But the U.S. should be acting more quickly to cover the air defense needs of allies, such as Slovakia, which recently sent S-300 missile systems to Ukraine. This should take days to arrange and not, as now, weeks.
The U.S. should also provide Ukraine with more mobile systems, such as the Avenger. These are basically Humvees armed with four Stinger surface-to-air launching pods. They would allow Ukrainian forces to operate relatively effective roving air defense umbrellas on the front lines, reducing Russia’s close air support advantage and freedom of action.
Ultimately, Biden should base his support for Ukraine on a simple strategic premise: We must do whatever we can, short of direct U.S. military action, to enable Ukraine’s speedy defeat of Russian invading forces. He is not living up to this at present, but he easily could.
