The United States has approved a new military aid package for Ukraine that includes material that kyiv has presumably lost in the week since the start of the first offensives in the south of the country. Thus, the Pentagon is going to deliver to Ukraine M-2 Bradley and Striker armored vehicles, which together with the Leopard tanks constitute, as far as we know, the backbone of the offensive operations that Ukraine has launched in the last week. A series of images widely shared by pro-Russian bloggers on social media show four M-2s and one Leopard 2A6 badly damaged or destroyed in combat at Zaporinya in southern Ukraine.
The Biden government’s decision gives Ukraine considerable leeway, which knows that, at least for the moment, it can face losses without being deprived of military material, given that its dependence on Western democracies for supplies is almost total. The new equipment, in addition, should not take long to arrive at the front, since the US has enough Bradleys and Strikers deployed in Europe, and the Ukrainians are already trained in handling these war machines.
On Russia’s side, the idea that its enemies have a seemingly inexhaustible – at least for the moment – supply of weapons is bad news. Although Moscow continues to transport tanks to Ukraine by rail, they are of increasingly poorer quality and older. In recent days, the American press has shown images of Chinese armored vehicles delivered to Russia, although not yet in Ukraine. If the reports were serious, it would imply that Beijing is actively violating its self-proclaimed neutrality in the war.
However, some unknowns remain. Germany, which is the country that manufactures the Leopard tanks, does not seem to have decided yet to replace the Ukrainian losses, despite the fact that these vehicles are essential to the Ukrainian war effort, just as it has not responded to Kiev’s request for cruise missiles. The British Challengers are very few -just over half a dozen-, so they cannot make a difference, and the American M-1 Abrams will still take several weeks to reach the front, so, according to the Secretary of Defense of that country, Lloyd Austin will possibly be unable to take part in Ukraine’s spring offensive.
The 31 Abrams that the US will deliver to Ukraine will, however, have a controversial type of ammunition: they will use depleted uranium bullets, which has sparked fears of radioactive contamination in some circles, despite the fact that Russian tanks in Ukraine have been using that type of ammunition. type of material since they invaded the country 16 months ago. Depleted uranium is a by-product of uranium enrichment to make atomic bombs and its main contaminating factor is chemical, not radioactive, according to the US Armed Forces quoted by The Wall Street Journal. British Challenger tanks already in Ukrainian hands also use depleted uranium shells. Depleted uranium was used in the 1991 Gulf War, in the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia, in Afghanistan since 2001 and Iraq since 2003. In addition to Ukraine, Russia has used it in Chechnya. Its use in combat is due to the fact that it increases the mass of the projectiles, making them much more compact and having a much greater destructive capacity.
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