Biden Could Move Weapons Meant For Fallen Afghan Government To Ukraine

The Biden administration may send military supplies originally meant for the defeated Afghan government to the Ukrainian border.

As The Daily Wire previously reported, Russian officials are hiking tensions in Eastern Europe by displaying military aggression along their border with Ukraine. President Joe Biden is seeking to prevent conflict in the region.

The Wall Street Journal explained:

The equipment is being sought by Ukraine, which discussed it with Pentagon officials, who generally support providing more arms to Ukraine. The National Security Council has yet to approve the arms delivery while the administration seeks a diplomatic solution to get Moscow to back off its military pressure campaign, the U.S. officials said.

The military kit previously earmarked for the Afghan National Security Forces includes Russian-made Mi-17 helicopters, U.S. officials said. The helicopters would provide more mobility for Ukrainian forces, which have a large front to defend and lost aircraft in clashes in 2014 when Russia annexed Crimea and pro-Moscow separatists rebelled in Ukraine’s east.

Ukrainian officials have also been lobbying the administration for air-defense systems, including Stinger surface-to-air missiles, that would help them defend their country against Russian aircraft, a Ukrainian official said. The country currently uses Soviet-era systems, which have been modernized but lag behind some of the high-tech equipment used by the Russian military.

Following a two-decade conflict in Afghanistan and the Biden administration’s disastrous pullout, the American military left behind 75,000 vehicles, 600,000 weapons and 208 aircraft as the Taliban overran the Afghan government.

When pressed in August about the abandoned military equipment, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki asserted that Biden would prevent the growth of terrorism in Afghanistan.

“When we talk about as the U.S. prepares to leave, whether tonight or tomorrow, there are going to be billions of dollars’ worth of U.S. munitions, arms, military aircraft, armored vehicles that have fallen in the hands of the Taliban here, giving them new capabilities they didn’t have before this,” NBC News reporter Peter Alexander asked Psaki. “Are Americans less safe now because the Taliban now has access to billions of dollars’ worth of American-made weaponry?”

“Well, let me impact your question a little bit, because the U.S. military, part of their retrograde effort is to reduce the amount of military equipment or apparatus that anyone on the ground has access to,” Psaki responded. “I’m not going to get into the details of how they do that, but that is part of their effort. I will also reiterate something that our national security adviser said just last week: We had to make an assessment several weeks ago about whether we’d provide materials to the Afghan national security forces so that they could fight the fight —obviously, they decided not to fight — or not. And we made the decision to provide them with that equipment and the material.”

“The third piece, I would note, that is very important here, is that we have not assessed whether any group on the ground, whether it’s ISIS-K or the Taliban, has the ability to attack the United States,” she continued. “We need to ensure that remains the case, but that is not a capability that we have assessed to be the case at this point in time. There’s a difference between the threat that is posed to U.S. men and women serving or people who are gathering outside of the gates of Kabul and whether these individuals can attack the United States.”

Later in the exchange, Alexander asked bluntly: “Is the United States more or less safe today than we were before the Taliban took over?”

“Well, again, we are not going to do anything that’s going to allow terrorists to grow or prosper in Afghanistan or any terrorist organization,” Psaki retorted. “That continues to be the president’s commitment, and his order to his U.S. military over the past several days and the actions that CENTCOM have announced show that he is going to deliver on that.”

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