Senator J.D. Vance has warned that the “math” on Ukraine aid “doesn’t add up,” with Volodymyr Zelensky requiring more equipment than the U.S. can produce.
“Ukraine needs more soldiers than it can field, even with draconian conscription policies. And it needs more matériel than the United States can provide,” Vance wrote in The New York Times, refuting Joe Biden’s allegations that the only obstacle to Ukrainian victory is conservatives’ reluctance to authorize open-ended U.S. taxpayer funding for the war.
“Biden has failed to articulate even basic facts about what Ukraine needs and how this aid will change the reality on the ground,” Vance noted, adding, “$60 billion is a fraction of what it would take to turn the tide in Ukraine’s favor.”
NO PATH TO VICTORY.
Even with over $60 billion, Vance stressed that the U.S. “lack[s] the capacity” to provide Zelensky with critical supplies, such as 155-millimeter artillery shells. The Ukrainians themselves have said they require four to seven million shells annually — but the total U.S. capacity is just 360,000 shells a year, and this cannot all be allocated to Ukraine.
Russia, meanwhile, is already manufacturing around three times as many artillery shells as the U.S. and its European allies combined.
“Russia could soon have a 10-to-1 artillery advantage over Ukraine… Russia’s current advantage is at least 5 to 1, even after all the money we have poured into the conflict. Neither of these ratios plausibly lead to Ukrainian victory,” Vance emphasized.
Similarly, the U.S. cannot keep up with Ukrainian demand for air defense missiles. Around 550 Patriots are manufactured annually, but Russia deployed 4,000 guided bombs, drones, and missiles against Ukraine in March alone.
“[B]oth American and Ukrainian leadership [need] to accept that Mr. Zelensky’s stated goals for the war — a return to 1991 boundaries — are fantastical,” Vance concluded, noting Biden “has no viable plan for the Ukrainians to win this war.”
