May 30, 2022
1. U.S. will not send Ukraine MLRS that can reach Russia, says Biden
According to Reuters, the United States will not send Ukraine multiple launch rocket systems that can reach into Russia, President Joe Biden said on May 30, as Ukraine pushes for longer-range weapons system to help in its fight. "We're not going to send to Ukraine rocket systems that strike into Russia," Biden told reporters after arriving back at the White House after a weekend in Delaware.
Ukrainian officials have been asking allies for longer-range systems including the Multiple Launch Rocket System, or MLRS, that can fire a barrage of rockets hundreds of miles away.
To go by Reuters, Biden did not rule out providing any specific weapons system, but instead appeared to be placing conditions on how they could be used. He and his team are working on a new package of military equipment and it is expected to be announced in coming days.
There are four more questions to such Biden’s remarks:
a) are they genuine? b) did he mean GMLRS as M31 and HIMERS as M142 or something different? c) has he signed his order not to send them to Kiev? d) if these systems are not used against Russia, but can they be used versus Donbass and Crimea that Washington and Kiev do not recognize as independent states?
2. Europol concerned over fate of Western arms shipped to Ukraine
Europol head, Catherine De Bolle, has warned weapons currently being delivered to Ukraine could eventually end up in the hands of criminals operating on the continent.
In her interview with Germany’s Welt am Sonntag newspaper published at the end of May, De Bolle said that one of the things which were of concern to her organization was the “whereabouts of the weapons that are currently being delivered to Ukraine.” She explained that when the conflict ends, Europol wants to “prevent a situation akin to that of 30 years ago in the Balkan war.”
“The weapons from that war are still being used by criminal groups today,” she said.
De Bolle noted that one of Europol’s key priorities now was to “find a way in which we will deal with the situation after a possible end to the war.” According to her, Europol “will be assembling an international task force that will address this issue.”
At the same time she does not mention that all Western lethal heavy weapons are used indiscriminately versus civilians in Ukraine and are encouraging neo-Nazi there to commit more crimes than small groups of criminals in any state.
3. Ukraine needs $5 bln each month to cover the state budget deficit
Ukraine has received $ 6.5 billion in aid from Western countries since the start of Russia’s military operation in late February, said Kateryna Rozhkova, the first deputy head of the National Bank of Ukraine, but needs more help
“Since the beginning of the war, Ukraine has received almost $6.5 billion from partner countries to support the economy,” Rozhkova stated on May 29.
The total includes both grants and loans, she explained, but did not specify how much Kiev would have to pay back. She also failed to announce how much the succeeding Ukrainian generations should pay back to the USA and NSATO as a whole for huge deliveries of arms and ammunition sent to the Kiev regimes that turned to be irrelevant and failed from the very beginning from 2014.
Rozhkova noted that Kiev cannot address its budget deficit on its own due to declining export earnings, while the recent downgrade of the country’s credit rating to pre-default is also a problem, as money cannot be borrowed on international markets due to the high cost of such loans. She failed to mention an enormous price tag for obtaining huge shipments of Western deadly weapons sent to Kiev.
According to the official, Ukraine needs at least $5 billion in aid each month to cover the state budget deficit.
4. Ukrainian troops are still active in pursuing genocide policy vs Donbass
Ukrainian troops and nationalist factions still continue shelling residential areas in Donbass deliberately choosing houses and social infrastructure and civilians.
The recent shelling of Donetsk has left at least five people dead, and 18 others injured, local authorities of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) said on May 30th. According to local officials, a teenage girl is among the fatalities. The strikes damaged several civilian facilities in the city, including schools and residential buildings.
Preliminary reports allege that US-supplied artillery may have been used in the attacks. In one home, two 14-year-old girls were hurt, Mayor Aleksey Kulemzin said. One of them died while the other one was taken to hospital. Three civilians were killed, and a dozen others injured at two schools, the mayor claimed. Two people were in serious condition, he added.
The DPR defense HQ said Ukrainian troops fired at least two Smerch rockets armed with cluster munitions prohibited by the international law and also used 155mm artillery in the shelling.
No Western leader or prominent international organizations have ever made critical remarks to such atrocities. Shame.
On May 30, Mayor Kulemzin said that the Ukrainian troops may have used US-supplied 155mm M777 howitzers in the assault. “This is heavy weaponry, most likely the American delivery,” he told Russian television when describing the attacks. He claimed some of the shell fragments discovered on the ground had markings in English.
Commenting on the news coming from Donetsk on Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Ukrainian attacks on civilian infrastructure in DPR were “outrageous.” “This is exactly what our warriors are fighting against. To make such things stop,” he said, branding the perpetrators “neo-Nazis”.
So, this is a vivid proof of personal President Biden’s interest in killing more and more civilians in Donbass with the aim to win a mid-term elections to the U.S Congress, and for the sake of having Nazi regime’s rule in Ukraine indefintely.
5. Situation on the battlefields
High-precision air-based missiles have hit 2 command and control posts of AFU battalions, 1 communications centre, as well as 34 areas of AFU manpower and military equipment concentration.
Operational-tactical and army aviation have hit 3 strong points and 67 areas of AFU manpower and military equipment concentration. The attacks have resulted in the elimination of more than 320 nationalists and 47 weapons and military equipment.
Russian air defence means have shot down 15 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles near Severodonetsk, Novochervonoe, Vasilevka of the Lugansk People's Republic, Panteleimonovka, Grigorovka, Krasnovka, Nevelskoe of the Donetsk People's Republic, Petrapolie, Petrovskoe, Glinskoe of Kharkov Region, Chornobaevka and Aleksandrovka of Kherson Region.
In addition, 9 Ukrainian Smerch multiple-launch rockets have been intercepted near Malaya Kamyshevakha, Kamenka, Brazhkovka, Glinskoe in Kharkov Region and Chernobaevka in Kherson Region.
Missile troops and artillery have hit 62 command posts, including those of Operational Command South near Novy Bug, Nikolaev Region, as well as 593 areas of AFU manpower and military equipment concentration and 55 artillery and mortar batteries at firing positions.
4 BM-21 Grad multiple-launch rocket launchers, 46 Ukrainian weapons and military equipment, as well as 1 ammunition depot near Novomikhailovka, Donetsk People's Republic, have been destroyed.
Italian-made howitzers’ positions has been also destroyed.
In addition, more than 15 Ukrainian tanks and infantry fighting vehicles and 5 large-calibre artillery mounts have been destroyed as a result of artillery strike on a hangar on the territory of Okean [Ocean] shipyard in Nikolaev city.
In total, from February 24th, 2022 were destroyed during the Operation “Z”:
183 Ukrainian aircraft and 128 helicopters,
1,064 unmanned aerial vehicles,
325 anti-aircraft missile systems,
3,323 tanks and other armored combat vehicles,
451 multiple launch rocket systems,
1,731 field artillery and mortars,
as well as 3,294 special military vehicles.
Written by Vladimir P. Kozin
