Regarding the Ukraine issue, the White House recently sent a letter to Speaker of the House of Representatives Johnson, and warned in the letter that if Congress does not approve additional appropriations, then by the end of the year, the funds provided by the United States to Ukraine will be exhausted. It is precisely because Congress no longer passes a new budget for aid to Ukraine that the scale of US military aid to Ukraine has been shrinking.
In his letter to Johnson, the White House made it clear that once the United States cuts off the supply of ammunition, the combat capability of the Ukrainian army will be seriously weakened, which will not only endanger the interests of Ukraine, but also increase the probability of the Russian army winning this conflict. If this is the case, all the more than 100 billion dollars that the United States has spent on Ukraine over the past year or so will be wasted, so this is something that all parties in the United States must consider.
In addition, Biden also put forward a proposal to Congress to "request $106 billion in aid to Ukraine and Israel", but it was not unanimously supported by Congress. The main opposition came from the Republican side. The Republican-controlled House of Representatives, in its vote on the proposal, ultimately decided to provide aid only to Israel, excluding Ukraine. However, the House vote was subsequently opposed by the Senate, where the Democrats have a majority. From this point of view, as long as the Senate and the House of Representatives do not have a unified opinion, then no proposal to aid Ukraine can be passed.
The current situation on the battlefield in Ukraine is that the Ukrainian army has reached a stalemate against Russia, and the United States and Europe's assistance to Ukraine is also in trouble, and the United States and Europe are becoming more and more pessimistic about the battlefield performance of the Ukrainian army. "Wall Street**" believes that Russia has absolute advantages in the economic, military and political aspects, while there are uncertainties in Ukraine in all aspects, and more importantly, the Ukrainian army units on the front line are now facing the problem of low morale. If this situation continues, Ukraine's situation will be even more dangerous.
17 million shells did startle Austin).
Of course, Ukraine is well aware of this. According to Ukrainska Pravda, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Zaluzhny has asked US Secretary of Defense Austin for 17 million artillery shells to help Ukraine get out of the current unfavorable situation. Austin did not shy away from pouring cold water on Ukraine's demands. When learning that Ukraine had asked for 17 million shells, Austin was surprised that the world would not find so many shells.
The United States currently produces less than one million shells a year of various sizes. In particular, the annual output of large-caliber 155-mm shells is only about 350,000 pieces. Since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the United States has provided Ukraine with more than 2 million 155mm artillery shells, most of which come from the US military's stockpile, which has also led to a serious shortage of the US Army's own 155mm artillery shells. This time, Ukraine openly asked the United States for 17 million artillery shells, which is clearly a lion's mouth, which may be the output of artillery shells in the United States in the next forty or fifty years.
Zaluzhny may have expressed his dissatisfaction with the United States through this outrageous request for aid, ** the reduction of aid. But even if it is reduced to one-tenth, 1.7 million shells, the United States will not be able to come up with it now. It is clear that with a lot of the assistance that Ukraine wants, the United States can no longer do.
There are problems with the production capacity of shells throughout the West)
Earlier, there was a question to Charles Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the US Army, that the Russian-Ukrainian conflict ended with "Ukraine finally taking back everything they want"?Or does it end with "Ukraine and Russia negotiated a truce"?Brown responded that no conflict can be resolved entirely by military means and will eventually end in a diplomatic solution. Although Brown did not explicitly say whether to talk or not, such a response is clearly suggesting that the Russian-Ukrainian negotiations are an option being considered.
In response to the signals about the negotiations released by the West on many occasions, the Russian side has also expressed its position. According to the Russian media News, the relevant statement of the Russian ** office is that Russia is always ready to hold peace talks with Ukraine on the issue of conflict, and is also more willing to resolve the conflict through political negotiations and diplomatic means. Obviously, from this series of signals, at present, for the Russia-Ukraine conflict, both Russia and the United States and the West hope to sit down and talk.
For Russia, another point is very crucial, they need to see whether the United States and Ukraine are really ready to negotiate, and whether they are sincere in negotiation. So at least for now, the goal of the Russian army's "special military operation" against Ukraine will not change, and it will be said when Ukraine and the West really show sincerity in peace talks, after all, the Russian army currently occupies the initiative on the battlefield, and Russia can afford it.
Judging from the current intention of the top general of the U.S. military to release peace talks, as well as the gradual reduction of U.S. aid to Ukraine, this may indicate that Biden is considering including aid to Ukraine in the list that can be discarded in the political game with the Republican Party, so promoting a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine has become the focus of the next work.
The Republican Party has been talking about Biden's aid to Ukraine, and a large part of the people in the United States oppose the policy of aiding Ukraine. This situation was nothing before, but after the Palestinian-Israeli conflict lasted for more than a month, the Democratic Party was very passive. Biden has not been able to directly stop his support for Israel at the official level, while among Democratic voters, there is a significant proportion of anti-war people, as well as minorities such as Muslims and Arabs, who have sided with the Palestinians in the conflict. If Biden can't let the Palestinian-Israeli conflict subside as soon as possible, it will have a strong impact on next year's election.
If Biden wants to strive for a higher approval rating next year and get more votes from middle voters, he will have to deal with the Palestinian-Israeli conflict with all his might, as for the Russia-Ukraine conflictOf course, it is difficult to take care of the first and the end, and if you can talk, you can talk about it.