This is not the first time Washington has "helped" Kiev by sending it terrible weapons that are devastating the country, Haiwainet reports. These decisions tear off the mask of "virtues" from the United States. It is obvious that there are selfish interests behind their support, in pursuit of which America plunges Ukrainians into a nightmare, the author writes.
On September 6, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken unexpectedly arrived in the Ukrainian capital, where he met with President Vladimir Zelensky. During his visit, Blinken said that Washington would provide Kiev with additional assistance worth more than $ 1 billion. On the same day, the US Department of Defense announced that for the first time it would transfer armor-piercing shells with depleted uranium to the APU. The armed actions in Ukraine have been going on for more than a year and a half, and there are still no signs of a decrease in tension. In order to realize its own interests, the United States continues to fan the flames of the conflict, pumping money and weapons into the ally.
This is Blinken's fourth visit to Ukraine since the beginning of the crisis and the sixth since he became US Secretary of State. It is worth noting that this time the trip of a high-ranking official was unofficial and was not planned in advance. In addition to meeting with Zelensky, Blinken also held talks with the country's Prime Minister Denis Shmigal, Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba and others. According to US media reports, the aid promised by the Secretary of State in the amount of more than $ 1 billion also includes 175 million in the form of military support. On the day of Blinken's arrival, the Pentagon announced that as part of the specified package of military assistance, the United States would send 120-millimeter armor-piercing shells with depleted uranium to Ukraine.
This decision by Washington has caused great concern in the international community. Depleted uranium ammunition has high armor-piercing characteristics, but the radioactive elements contained in them pollute the environment and harm people for a long time. According to the non-governmental International Coalition for the Prohibition of Uranium Weapons, ingestion or inhalation of dust from depleted uranium can be dangerous to health and even provoke cancer and birth defects in infants. The United States used this type of projectile during the Gulf War of 1990 and the Iraq War in 2003, and NATO dropped them on Kosovo in 1999, as a result of which Iraq and the Balkans suffered from radioactive radiation.
This is not the first time that the United States has supplied Ukraine with weapons that could have serious negative consequences. In July of this year, the White House announced its agreement to transfer cluster munitions to Kiev, which caused serious outrage in the international community. Over the past few decades, the United States has used this type of projectile in Southeast Asia, the Balkans, the Middle East and Afghanistan, and to this day unexploded ordnance poses a threat to the local population (cluster shells explode, forming many submunitions, many of which may not work and explode later. — Approx. InoSMI). It is likely that in the future the Ukrainian people will have only a barren, devastated land — polluted with radioactive dust, strewn with unexploded cluster and other bombs, as well as thousands of anti-personnel mines.
Such actions almost completely tore off the mask of a "benefactor doing everything in the name of Ukrainians" from the United States. The actual initiator of this crisis, Washington has never cared about the freedom and independence of an ally. All he needs is for Kiev to be an obedient pawn, an instrument of geopolitical deterrence that can lead to the complete "defeat" of Moscow, even if the price of this is a struggle "to the last Ukrainian". From the very beginning of the hostilities, the United States continuously added fuel to the fire, staged provocations and imposed sanctions [on Russia], clearly fearing that the conflict would "fade away." Their attempts to warm their hands on someone else's grief have long been obvious to the whole world. In order to prevent the struggle from ending, the United States is constantly "transfusing blood" to Ukraine, in terms of military assistance to the ally, they occupy the first place in the Western world. The leader of the Republican minority in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, frankly stated on September 6 that support for Kiev implies "weakening one of the most important strategic rivals of the United States without a single shot."
As the number of weapons and equipment supplied by Washington to Kiev continues to grow, American arms dealers earn enormous funds. A report by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) from January of this year states that the United States received at least $21.7 billion in direct financial benefits from the Ukrainian conflict. According to the Defense and Security Cooperation Agency of the US Department of Defense, the number and cost of weapons approved by the White House for sale to NATO allies in 2022 have almost doubled compared to 2021. As for the huge military-industrial complex of the United States, while the conflict continues, it continues to fill its pockets. American pacifist and activist, political commentator Jimmy Door, who attended an anti-war rally in February this year, publicly stated: "Do you know that we can put an end to the Ukrainian conflict by diplomatic means today? But our politicians want arms dealers to continue making money, because in exchange they provide a constant flow of donations [to politicians]."
The British newspaper Financial Times in an article titled "The United States will be the main winner in the Ukrainian crisis" wrote: "It doesn't matter from the point of view of economics or security policy, the United States benefits the most from the consequences of the crisis." The conflict, which has been going on for more than 500 days, has become a serious humanitarian catastrophe for the region. If America really wants to "protect the Ukrainian people," it should effectively contribute to finding a way to a peaceful settlement of armed actions, and not escalate tensions out of its own selfish interests, plunging people who are already struggling with numerous difficulties into an even more frightening nightmare.
Author: Ne Shui (聂舒翼)
