Pentagon Official Admits Aid To Ukraine Drains Arsenal, But Does Not Harm US

United States arms aid shipments to Ukraine. (Twitter/@USEmbassyKyiv)

JAKARTA - A senior United States Department of Defense official, the Pentagon, acknowledged the arms aid provided to Ukraine was draining their arsenal, but did not jeopardize Washington's position.

US Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl told the Washington-based Defense Writers Group that military aid to Ukraine depletes Western arsenals and creates additional pressure on the defense industry.

When asked to comment on the long-term consequences of US military aid to Kiev, the official said: "There is no doubt that it has put pressure on our own supplies, it has put pressure on our defense industrial base, our allies," as quoted by TASS, November, 9.

"I would say Secretary of Defense (US Lloyd) Austin has been focused from the start on making sure we don't take an undue risk, which is that we don't reduce our inventory so much that it would undermine our readiness and ability to respond to other high-profile contingencies elsewhere in the world," he said.

At the same time, high-ranking Pentagon officials ensured that military assistance to Ukraine would in no way damage the country's defense capabilities.

"So I'm comfortable with the support we've provided to Ukraine that doesn't put the United States in a precarious position as it relates to another major contingency somewhere in the world, but it does reveal that we have work to do to make our defense industry more agile, more secure. responsive, more resilient," he explained.

It is known that the West sent massive weapons and military vehicles to help Ukraine face the Russian invasion that began on February 24.

Last month, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova issued a warning, citing the flow of NATO arms to Ukraine and military support for Kyiv, bringing the alliance closer to a dangerous line of direct military clash with Russia.

Zakharova drew attention to the fact that Western military support for Ukraine, according to the latest data, has reached a value of about 42.3 billion US dollars or around IDR 659,721,375,000,000.

Of this amount, it is said that around 28.3 billion US dollars or around IDR 441,373,875,000,000 of which was provided by the United States.