12.03.2024 07:20
U.S. National Intelligence Director Avril Haines, speaking at the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, called on lawmakers to approve the provision of military aid to Ukraine.
This is reported by Ukrinform with reference to Reuters.
According to Haines, it is difficult to imagine how Ukraine will be able to hold its territory, which it regained from Russia, without additional help from the United States.
Intelligence officials presented a 2024 threat assessment report to the Committee that said the United States faces an “increasingly fragile world order” that suffers from great power competition, global challenges, and regional conflicts.
“An ambitious but anxious China, a confrontational Russia, some regional powers, such as Iran, and more capable non-state actors are challenging longstanding rules of the international system as well as U.S. primacy within it,” the agencies said in their 2024 Annual Threat Assessment.
The document examines threats posed by China and Russia, and indicates the risks of conflict between Israel and the Hamas.
It is noted that China provides economic and security assistance to Russia, which is waging a war against Ukraine. Thus, the PRC supports the Russian industrial base.
Since the start of the full-scale Russian war, trade between Beijing and Moscow has been on the rise, with Chinese exports of goods that can be used for military purposes more than tripling.
In addition, the report indicates, China may use technology to try to influence this year’s elections in the United States. “[China] may attempt to influence the U.S. elections in 2024 at some level because of its desire to sideline critics of China and magnify U.S. societal divisions,” the intelligence services believe.
The director of the Central Intelligence Agency, William Burns, noted that further support for Ukraine would serve as a deterrent signal for China in the context of its probable aggression against Taiwan or in the South China Sea.
“It is our assessment that [Chinese leader] Xi Jinping was sobered, you know, by what happened. … He didn’t expect that Ukraine would resist with the courage and tenacity the Ukrainians demonstrated,” Burns said.
At the same time, Haines expressed concern that the conflict in the Gaza Strip could have implications for the whole world. “The crisis in Gaza is a stark example of how regional developments have the potential of broader and even global implications,” she said, clarifying that this is evidenced by attacks by the Yemeni Houthis on merchant ships, and increased activity by al Qaeda and ISIS.
As reported, House Speaker Mike Johnson has been refusing to schedule a vote on the bill passed by Senate, which provides for the allocation of $60 billion in aid to Ukraine.
(C)UKRINFORM 2024
The only fatigue that grips me is not that of the war, but that of the criminal and immature inaction of Congress.
We need to wake up, aid to Ukraine is not so much a means of retaking territories as a means of defending themselves and surviving! The change in strategy on the ground and the construction of 2000 km of fortifications attest to this. This aid is needed for Ukraine from the USA, the only partner that can support it militarily in these proportions. It is a question of quantity of weapons of course, but also of a specific type of weapons and logistics which are only available through US channels.
A loan would be a real slap to Ukraine in view of the commitments made in 1994 by all the countries concerned, nonsense in view of Ukraine’s economic situation and a terrible signal of long-term support.
If the United States wants to abandon Ukraine and exempt itself from this conflict, the only logical solution is to return the nuclear arsenal to Ukraine, which received in exchange only an empty shell as a guarantee of security.
Johnson, Congress, we implore you, act damn it!
Johnson his Trumps whore.