The Biden administration continues going 'all in' on support for Ukraine, despite clear and universal acknowledgement that its forces are being beaten back along front lines, and a manpower crisis which is worsening by the day.
A Thursday Biden administration statement has revealed a major decision which is to significantly impact Washington's allies: the United States is pausing all shipments of Patriot interceptor missiles to foreign countries and redirecting them to Ukraine.
US National Security Council spokeman John Kirby confirmed to reporters that the "difficult but necessary decision" of prioritizing the delivery of Patriot and NASAM missiles to Ukraine has been made.
He also acknowledged this will come at the expense of allies which had struck deals with Washington for Patriots. Kirby described that Kiev must urgently have the ability to maintain its stockpiles "at a key moment in the war."
"We’re going to reprioritize the deliveries of these exports so that those missiles rolling off the production line will now be provided to Ukraine," he affirmed. The shipments in question were expected to begin rolling out by late summer.
"This . . . demonstrates our commitment to supporting our partners when they’re in existential danger," Kirby continued. As we reported previously, Spain and Greece had come under considerable pressure from EU and NATO leadership to 'sacrifice' their Patriots to Ukraine, despite Greece in particular facing long-term threats (from Turkey).
Recent weeks have seen President Biden authorize deployment of a second Patriot missile battery to Ukraine from its base of operations in Poland, despite these valuable systems being in limited supply. Warsaw wasn't too pleased:
This morning [last Thurs. June 13], the head of President Duda’s National Security Bureau (BBN), Jacek Siewiera, responded to the report by telling broadcaster Radio Zet that “American Patriots should not be transferred from Poland to Ukraine”.
“We are a key country for supplies to Ukraine and deterrence on NATO’s eastern flank,” said Siewiera. “Air defence is necessary here. I will want to discuss this with US Presidential [National Security] Advisor Jake Sullivan.”
President Biden had earlier announced that "everything we have is going to go to Ukraine until their needs are met" amid the broader push to get more European countries to donate weapons.
But there's also lately been some behind closed doors EU infighting over the rush to get Ukraine more, more & more weapons, even as Western countries' own stockpiles are already dwindled.
...Talk about a very literal concept of Ukraine first.