US weapons shipments for Ukraine disappearing into 'black hole': CNN

The US government is struggling to track large quantities of “lethal aid” shipped to Ukraine in recent months amid raging conflict in the country, according to a stunning new revelation.

Top security officials were quoted as saying by CNN on Tuesday that the US intelligence agencies had “almost zero” ability to follow the consignments to their final destination, referring to it as "the largest recent supply to a partner country in a conflict."

"We have fidelity for a short time, but when it enters the fog of war, we have almost zero," it quoted a military source as saying. "It drops into a big black hole, and you have almost no sense of it at all after a short period of time."

The Biden administration is concerned that the aid “may wind up in the hands of other militaries and militias that the US did not intend to arm,” a senior military official told CNN.

Western countries, including the US, have in recent weeks dispatched many different types of sophisticated weapons to Ukraine, worth millions of dollars, which has provoked Russia to up the ante.

The first shipments of the latest round of US military assistance to the former Soviet republic, which includes heavier weapons systems, started arriving in the region over the weekend, reports said.

The recently approved $800 million in military aid to Ukraine includes Howitzer artillery systems, 40,000 artillery rounds, armored personnel vehicles, and other weapons.

It brings the total of military shipments to Ukraine since the start of the war in late February to $2.6bn.

Ukraine calls on NATO allies to give Kiev ‘all weapons it needs’

Ukraine has called on members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to provide Kiev with all the weaponry it needs to fight Russia, as Moscow continues a military offensive against the country.

"The artillery is a specific item the Ukrainians asked for because of the specific fighting they expect is going to occur in the Donbas," Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said in a press briefing on Monday.

"And we know the Russians also believe the same thing because we see them moving artillery units into the Donbas as well."

While the US officials haven’t publicly acknowledged that arms aren’t being tracked, the CNN report cited a senior Pentagon official as saying that it was “due in large part to the lack of US boots on the ground”.

Washington heavily relies on Ukrainian government information about what’s happening in the conflict-torn country due to a lack of US boots on the ground, according to the report.

“It's a war – everything they do and say publicly is designed to help them win the war. Every public statement is an information operation, every interview, every Zelensky appearance broadcast is an information operation,” another source told the channel.

Earlier this week, Russia sent a formal warning to the US not to supply more arms to Ukraine, warning of “unpredictable consequences”.

A report in the Washington Post said Moscow sent a démarche, warning that the US and NATO deliveries of the “most sensitive” weapons systems to Ukraine were “adding fuel” to the conflict.

Before that, the Russian ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov in an interview with Newsweek magazine warned that any military assistance to Kiev will only worsen the conflict and potentially lead to a direct confrontation between Moscow and Washington.

US, allies’ military aid to Ukraine will only worsen conflict: Russia

Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov made the remarks in an interview with the Newsweek.

“Western states are directly involved in the current events as they continue to pump Ukraine with weapons and ammunition, thereby inciting further bloodshed,” Antonov said.

“Western states are directly involved in the current events as they continue to pump Ukraine with weapons and ammunition, thereby inciting further bloodshed.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the military offensive in Ukraine on February 24, which it said was designed to demilitarise and “denazify” Ukraine.

Moscow has been slapped with unprecedented sanctions by the US-led NATO military alliance, but it insists that the operation will continue until all the goals are met.

On Tuesday, Russia announced a new phase of the operation as fighting raged in the breakaway Donbas region and officials urged civilians to flee.

“Another phase of this operation is beginning and I am sure it will be a very important moment in this entire special operation,” Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said during an interview broadcast by the India Today TV channel on Tuesday.

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