Ukraine prepares its request for lethal aid from US
2014-11-26
Posted by: badanov
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By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
American and Ukrainian military and US state department officials appear to be preparing requests for lethal aid for the Ukrainian military from the US, recently disclosed documents revealed.
Tuesday the pro Russian hacking group CyberBerkut disclosed a number of English and Ukrainian language government documents the group says are an indication of all out war against the Donbas rebels of southeastern Ukraina.
The documents are said to have been stolen from the "mobile device" of a member of the US delegation to Ukraina that visited the country last November 21st.
The United States has been providing non-lethal military aid to the Ukrainian Army and Navy since the start of the civil war last May, including such items as boots and food as well as military training. Donbas rebels following last summer's campaign near Ilovaisk frequently recovered wrappers for Meals Ready to Eat (MREs) from positions abandoned by Ukrainian military units.
Current US policy is for non-lethal aid only, but with the new American Congress to be seated in January, a much friendlier political climate has emerged which could give way to the beginning of lethal aid, primarily in the form of guns and small bore artillery.
The hacker group on its website laments "funding levels staggering in scope" shown in the documents, including travel expenses prepaid by the US government to Ukrainian army officers for travel from Kiev to Lvov and Zhitomir and back.
The expenses paid totaled UAH $548,000 (USD $36,557.43), and was for the travel expenses of 12 Ukrainian officers for travel during the exercise.
Lvov is a training area that the United States and NATO use to train foreign troops the Ukrainians will use in southeastern Ukraina. The document said the expenses were paid as part of US support for last September's battalion-level ground exercises dubbed "Rapid Trident-2014".
According to information supplied at the NATO website, the exercise ended September 26th.
Among the documents released are a Letter of Notification, a Presidential Drawdown letter, a Memorandum to the Secretary of State, and two letters of determination. The two letters of determination outline the statutes under which aid is provided and transferred from the US government to the Ukrainian government, and are both signed by John Kerry.
The letters also indicate that a total of USD $25 million is available in non-lethal aid to the Ukrainian government in its current war on the Donbas rebels.
The Memorandum to the Secretary of State is signed by President Barack Obama. Three documents are destined to be posted in the Federal Register. All four documents deal with the transfer of 12 mobile counterbattery radars, three of which have already been delivered the the Ukrainian military.
What has disturbed the Cyberberkut group, and by extension the Donbas rebel leaders is a list of weapons for the Ukrainian armed forces and a list of equipment for its naval forces, mainly in the form of combat swimmers' equipment.
The list of arms, which can only be part of a list of equipment the Ukrainian military will request when the new Congress is seated next January, includes:
- 30 7.62x51mm M110 Heckler & Koch sniper rifles
- 100 .338 Caliber Lapua sniper rifles
- 1,000 5.56x45mm SCAR-L Rifles
- 1,000 7.62x51 NATO SCAR-H rifles
- 150 12x99mm M-107 Barrett brand sniper rifles with scopes
- 200,000 Rounds 5.56x45mm ammunition
- 150,000 Rounds 7.62x51mm NATO ammunition
- 100,000 Rounds .338 Lapua ammunition
- 80,000 Rounds 12x99mm ammunition
- 40 M-224A1 60mm mortars
- 20,000 Shells for 60mm mortars
- 145 M252 81mm mortars
- 43,500 Shells for 81mm Mortars
- 40 M120 120mm mortars
- 16,000 Shells for 120mm mortars
- 720 MGL-140 grenade launchers (40mm)
- 72,000 Rounds 40mm grenades
- 80 TOW II antitank missiles/launchers
- 420 TOW II missiles
- 150 Stinger MANPAD SAMs
- 280 MRAP armored personnel carriers
- 1,312 HMMVs
The remainder of the list has to do with radio and communications gear for ground forces.
The other list, for naval equipment has the hacker group stumped, because it includes a number of items used specifically by combat swimmers. The group questions whether the Ukrainian naval forces have any combat swimmers.
Other documents released by the hacker group include a request for HMMWVs, a purchase or transfer proposal for radio and communications gear to be used in the civil war in the Donbas region, a request for US made counterbattery radars, ground surveillance radars, UAVs and accessories.
Other requests include thermal imaging devices and accessories, sleeping bags, generators, water bottles, refrigerators, fuel pumps, automotive equipment and accessories.
The total list for weapons is small relative to the size of the Ukrainian armed forces, so the most significant items appear to be the 1,312 HMMWVs, the thermal imaging devices and the drones. Rebels have charged that the Ukrainian armed forces are already using thermal imaging devices.
Chris Covert writes about foreign military issues for Rantburg.com. He can be reached at grurkka@gmail.com. You can read past articles about the 2014 war in southeastern Ukraina by clicking here.
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