In December of this past year (2021) the “New York Times” offered a digital subscription for $1 a week, and I subscribed.
Therefore, I’ve been reading the “updates” on the situation in Ukraine. I also subscribe to (and read) the “Quad City Times,” the “Chicago Tribune,” and the “Austin American Statesman,” but the reporting from the NYC on Ukraine seems to be head and shoulders above that of any other paper, which, no doubt, owes a large debt to their commitment to aggressively reporting on matters in Russia and Ukraine.
Here are a few things that came to light in today’s paper (6/15/2022) or on CNN, courtesy of Anderson Cooper.
Volodymyr Zelensky has been impatiently waiting for:
1,000 howitzers
300 missile launch rocket systems
300 tanks
2,000 armored vehicles
1,000 drones
Museum of Science & Industry
Anna Malya, Deputy Defense Minister for Ukraine, recently released this statement about the need for weapons and assistance from other NATO nations: “No matter how hard Ukraine tries, no matter how professional our army is, without the help of Western partners, we will not be able to win this war.”
So far, we have given Ukraine 108 howitzers, 4 HIMARS truck-mounted multiple-launch rocket systems (with a range of 40 miles) and Ukrainian soldiers are being trained on the use of the HIMARS now, so that they will appear in the battle this or next week.
To date, the U.S. has allocated $5.6 billion to Ukraine to help them defeat Russia. Canada, Poland and the Netherlands have chipped in something like $4.3 billion. The Ukrainians said thy have received “only 10% of what is needed” to win against Russia.
Now that the war is continuing to drag on, Putin seems to have decided that he can use his energy position in Europe to “outlast” NATO. He is also weaponizing food. Frederick Plertgen, in St. Petersburg, Russia, an international correspondent described how Putin is holding up the delivery of 30 million tons of grain that would normally be shipped to Africa, the Middle East, and other European countries, to the tune of at least $1 billion.
For those questioning whether spending this much to help Ukraine defeat Russia is worth it, I would recommend the book “Winter Is Coming” by chess champion Gary Kasparov, which was written years before Russia made clear its intentions to retake independent democracies that neighbor them (including posing a threat to neighbors Finland and Sweden). Russia is truly a threat to the European nations in Russia’s path, world order. NATO must persevere in its attempts to stand firm against the threat that Putin and Russia pose to the free world.