US Military Aid to Ukraine Part 1
Another Commentary Coming from
An American in Ukraine
by Dr. E. C. Olson, Mission Director
Part 1: Fact-Finding: United States Military Aid to Ukraine – Is it what the Ukrainians need and is it making a difference?
It depends on who you are asking.
Ukraine’s military leaders will tell you that the US aid is as close to being perfect as possible in terms of meeting their overall needs – while soldiers on the front lines will remind you that they also need far more basic personal military equipment and supplies.
But both will tell you unequivocally that the US military aid is absolutely making a difference on the battlefield, is saving Ukrainian lives and is the single most important key to winning the war.
Two weeks ago, when I was on the front lines imbedded with a Ukrainian anti-tank company, I had plenty of opportunities to talk with these courageous soldiers about foreign military aid, specifically that which is coming from the U.S. To the last one, each of these combat veterans effused gratitude for the U.S.’s generous military aid packages, and nearly every last one of them went out of their way to emphasize that they wouldn’t be where they are in the war without that vital aid, in fact a few opined that they would likely be dead without it.
While our Mission’s primary goal was delivering the most-needed aid to the neediest Ukrainians (which is what brought us to these front lines in the first place), another of our primary goals was to conduct fact-finding on two important topics. First was determining the conditions-on-the-ground, both in terms of the combat conditions and in terms of the condition of the Ukrainian civilians – while the second important topic was the whole matter of America’s military aid.
These resourceful Ukrainian soldiers serving on the front lines do whatever they can to arm themselves for combat and to meet the everyday needs soldiers have who are living in isolated camps often far away from supply depots – including harvesting captured Russian weapons. Here are but some of the spoils of war, which the Blue Dogs got one week before I arrived, when they over-ran the Russian front lines.
As the eyes-and-ears on-the-ground for any receptive representatives in both Congress and The White House, I was asked to objectively record my own observations along with the informal testimonies of, in the case of military aid, as many Ukrainian soldiers as I could reach. Naturally, our political leaders want and need to know whether or not the aid that we are giving Ukraine is actually meeting their actual needs and more importantly, is that specific aid making a difference on the battlefield and in the greater context, is it helping Ukraine defeat the Russians?
IMPORTANT UPDATE: Already this week that interest was elevated by one billion more reasons why these are important questions and answers – for that was the estimated dollar amount of the brand-new military aid package that was announced just today, Monday August 8th. More on this very latest aid package below.
Because of whom I was asking these questions of – Ukraine’s everyday foot soldiers who every single day engage in one form or another of offensive or defensive combat against the Russians – the answers I got reflected that granular, life-or-death focus.
I’m fairly certain that if I was instead asking Ukraine’s top military leaders in either Kyiv or in one of the regional military command-and-control centers, I would get somewhat different answers – except for the one perspective shared by both front-line soldiers and command-and-control top brass, which was a resounding “yes…America’s military aid is definitely helping Ukraine beat Russia across most of the war’s footprint”.
Here you will see how those varying opinions and conclusions play out, as first I will share with you the insight given to me by the foot soldiers I was imbedded with on the war’s southwestern front lines, the “Blue Dogs” anti-tank company. I need to also mention that being with these men at their small camp, where the entire nine-man company’s equipment and supplies fit inside the small one-bedroom house they occupied, also benefitted by fact-finding because there I could see what their everyday life required, along with anything that would improve the primitive conditions they’re otherwise living amongst.
The first – and most lasting – takeaway I have from these discussions with these front-line fighters on the topic of aid supplies is that these guys are doing without a whole lot in terms of their individual personal items so that they can use whatever resources they can lay hands on – including the vast majority of their own pay that they receive from the Ukrainian government – so that they can acquire better weapons and better combat equipment.
Why I mention this is to not only point out the significant personal sacrifices that the Ukrainian soldiers are making to perform better on the battlefield, but also to emphasize the profound need for Missions like ours to provide personal aid items to these soldiers. This reflects an inherently natural division of dutiful aid between and among the U.S. government and private individuals and NGOs – where the government supplies weaponry that only they can get, while private humanitarians can provide supplies that they can reasonably get.
Here I literally opened-up my suitcase to offer any of my personal items to the Blue Dogs after I saw how little they had. In some recent incidences, they traded their own food and personal hygiene items in order to get ammunition for their shoulder-fire rocket-launchers.
Before that they did without their weekly supplies and took money out of their own paychecks so that they could collectively buy a van to transport them to and from battlefields, and the nearest field hospital and distant aid supply depots.
In my questioning of the Blue Dogs, I had to constantly remind myself to observe as much as listen to them when they were expressing their aid needs, because all of them persistently put their purpose or mission before their own personal needs. For example, while they were describing the various weapons and ammunition they needed, at the same time I could not help but notice how all of them had at best second-hand molle belts, pouches and backpacks. Or when they were describing what night vision equipment would make their evening missions more successful, I couldn’t help but notice how nearly every single one of them was using opened-up cardboard boxes and newspapers for blankets and pillows.
In this photo, right before we left for an evening mission, the Blue Dogs loaded-up their gear, which gives you a good idea what kind of military clothing and equipment they use, even right down to the camo patterns they prefer. For those of you who are familiar with military gear, these molle backpacks, vests and belts are their standard issue, so if you are considering helping them by picking-out personal gear for them, they could really use just about any kind of molle drop bags or pouches, including ones made to hold grenade and ammunition magazines in the standard NATO sizes.
So if you are interested in helping our Mission to better outfit the Blue Dogs, please consider these soldiers’ personal needs, because far too often they do without personal comfort (and safety) so that they can divert these funds to purchase better armament and company-wide equipment. And by providing them with these creature-comforts, you are sending a clear message to them that we Americans care about the personal individual welfare of our Ukrainian brothers and sisters.
SEE THE END OF THIS ARTICLE FOR THE ANNOUNCEMENT ON HOW YOU CAN PERSONALLY SUPPORT THE BLUE DOGS AND THE UKRAINIAN MILITARY EVERYWHERE.
Meeting Ukraine’s Military Aid Needs according to Ukraine’s Military Leaders in Kyiv and nationwide in the Military Command-and-Control Centers
While I did not have the same long periods of times or number of opportunities to question Ukraine’s military leaders that I did with the front-line soldiers, I was able to gain enough information from them and other nation-wide military sources to create a refined list of most-needed military equipment – in a military-wide perspective.
For the most part, the recommendations from Ukraine’s military leaders mirror what the foot soldiers told me, beginning with the fact that their greatest military need at this point is to obtain as many long-range weapons as possible, especially HIMARS – Highly Mobile Artillery Rocket System missiles, and GMLRS – Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System, both are precision-guided systems with a functional range of up to 70 kilometers. So coveted by Ukrainian soldiers are these HIMARS, that the first answer the Blue Dogs gave me when I asked what military aid they need most: a resounding cry of “HIMARS, HIMARS and more HIMARS!” was their answer.
These long-range weapons are having a very profound effect in the battlefield, where they are essentially a 200-pound warhead that is nearly equivalent to a precision-guided airstrike. The fact that they cover a much longer range, often twice of the weapons the Ukrainians were previously using, where they’re very effective in hitting targets that the Ukrainians previously could not reach.
Another area – or to be more accurate – another weapon that both the Ukrainian foot soldiers and top brass agree upon are the much smaller-range anti-tank and anti-armored personnel carrier weapons, these being much more effective in close-range fighting.
Here the Blue Dogs showed me one of the most effective weapons that has helped them in their short-range combat against Russian forces: the 84-mm Swedish-designed AT4, which was first adopted by the US in 1987, a weapon that has served as a battlefield staple since then, including the fact that more than 20,000 of these single-shot, disposable weapons have been used thus far in Ukraine. Equally coveted is the more permanent version of the AT4, the also Swedish-made 84-mm “Carl Gustav”, which is a highly versatile, fully reusable weapon that can fire a wide range of explosive rounds depending on specific needs.
Also mirroring what we heard from the front lines – in this case from the medical staff at the Ukrainian Field Hospital that we delivered aid to – was the need for platforms to transport injured soldiers from the battlefield to hospitals. At our Field Hospital, the needed “platform” was nothing more than inflatable rafts, while in the nationwide military survey, there was a profound need for “armored medical treatment vehicles”, which basically means a fully-stocked field hospital on four wheels and covered with enough armor that it could repel small arms fire and fragmentation bombs. Also needed on the battlefield – and provided by this latest military aid package, were a wide assortment of first-aid kits, bandages, monitors and other medical equipment.
Otherwise, the weapons and ammunition needs were split between long-range weaponry (e.g., mostly HIMARS, 155mm artillery and NASAMS) – and short-range weaponry (e.g., 120mm mortar systems, Javelin and AT4 should-fire rockets, Claymore anti-personnel munitions, and C-4 munitions).
An appropriate jumping-off point to Part 2 of this report on the US military aid packages, is to repeat what I heard in terms of various forms of profound gratitude coming from the Ukrainian soldiers – gratitude for what medical aid supplies we were able to deliver during our Mission and gratitude for this latest two shipments of aid coming from the American government, which included a significant amount of personal medical supplies for the men and women serving on the front lines.
“I can’t tell you how good it feels to know that Americans truly care about us soldiers”, one of the Blue Dogs told me as we were sitting down for dinner our last night there. “And none of us can get over the fact that you traveled halfway around the world to come to our small camp in the front lines, where you’re risking your life just to bring us these supplies. That’s pretty unbelievable.”
I can also tell you that throughout our entire time in Ukraine countless individual Ukrainians – ranging from Governors and other government officials to villagers and soldiers – made a special point to thank us for what we were doing, calling us everything from heroes (“geroiv”) to angels (“yangoli”).
So in terms of my fact-finding on America’s humanitarian, medical and military aid to Ukraine, all of that gets the highest marks possible, as regardless of what type of aid we’re providing, what we are specifically suppling IS meeting the Ukrainians’ most vital needs, it IS making a significant difference in their everyday lives, especially during times of great distress, and it IS translating into the Ukrainians having a significantly greater military advantage, evidenced by how our specific types of aid are winning battles with less Ukrainian casualties.
And from a personal perspective, above all the Ukrainians are eternally grateful for all that we are doing.
Do you want to personally help the Ukrainian Military in general and our Blue Dogs in particular? Here’s how you can:
Until Mission II arrives in Ukraine in September (armed with significantly more aid supplies than we had for Mission I), beginning next week we will be continually sending our adopted front-line company, The Blue Dogs, bi-weekly personal aid packages – so if you would like to help us with this, please read on.
In considering all major factors (from where to buy the needed gear to delivering it) we are relying a great deal on the things that we learned when we were in Ukraine two weeks ago so that we can assure you, our Mission donors and supporters, that every penny that you donate will be used in the most efficient manner in meeting the precise personal needs of the Blue Dogs.
So here is what I have arranged: I have already secured three of our Ukrainian Mission Team Members (led by Theo Petrov and Oleg Azov) who have volunteered to go purchase the needed aid items (or if I am ordering the supplies, they will receive the goods at their homes), and then taking it to the front-lines and deliver it to the Blue Dogs at their camp.
I want to impress upon you what a generous and courageous undertaking this is by our Ukrainian Team Members – beginning with the fact that the front lines are more than 250 miles from Kyiv (where most of our Team Members live), and the last 50 miles of that long trip are exceptionally dangerous as this falls inside the “active combat zones”.
As we experienced first-hand last month when we were there in these active combat zones, throughout days and nights we heard dozens of explosions each hour from Russian long-range missiles and rockets and close-range artillery. Further representing the danger our Mission Team Members face in delivering aid to these front-line camps and villages is the fact that Russian military forces are often less than 2-3 miles away at any given time.
So please join me in thanking Theo, Oleg and the other Ukrainians who are continuing to help us as Mission Team Members.
In terms of how you can participate in this noble effort to help our allies, you can either donate the actual equipment and supplies you want (then I will give you the best address to ship this to, and then see that Theo or Oleg or one of our Team Members gets this gear to the Blue Dogs camp) – or you can donate money to our Mission (designating it for this special fund or for whatever equipment you want to sponsor), and I will order and ship the gear to our guys in Ukraine for delivery to the Blue Dogs camp.