On Thursday, Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen announced that the Russian paramilitary organization Wagner Group is among numerous Russian entities being sanctioned for their involvement in Russia’s war in Ukraine. The most recent round of sanctions from both the Treasury and Department of State target the individuals and organizations supporting the infrastructure of Putin’s war in Ukraine.
In an effort to decrease Vladimir Putin’s ability to fund the war in Ukraine that Russia started in February 2022, the U.S. and other Western countries have imposed heavy sanctions on Russia. Since invading Ukraine, Russia has lost access to roughly half of its gold and foreign currency reserves.
On Tuesday, the Pentagon announced that it will be increasing the production of artillery ammunition by 500% over the next two years due to depleted military stockpiles caused by sending millions of shells to Ukraine.
After weeks of debate within the Biden administration and building pressure from Germany and some members of Congress, the administration has announced that it will send 30 M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine in what is being seen as a breakthrough. The debate as to whether or not to send Western-made tanks to Ukraine has also been a source of division amid NATO allies.
On Tuesday, the Ukrainian government confirmed the resignation of numerous high-ranking officials as the result of widespread corruption allegations. The situation is being called the biggest graft scandal since Russia invaded Ukraine almost a year ago.
According to a report in Der Spiegel, German foreign intelligence has assessed that Ukraine is losing a “three-digit number” of troops daily. Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service (BND) has said that it is “alarmed” at the high number of casualties suffered by Ukrainian forces and that Berlin believes that the number of losses reached three digits daily during the battle of Bakhmut. German politicians were informed of the high number of casualties during a secret Bundestag meeting last week.
Russia’s Defense Ministry on Saturday, announced the completion of an anti-air exercise that was carried out near Moscow, saying, “In the Moscow region, a training session was held with the personnel of the anti-aircraft missile brigade of the Western Military District on repelling air attacks on important military-industrial and administrative facilities.” The announcement and exercises came just days after numerous reports that Russia had installed Pantsir-S1 air defense systems on several key buildings in Moscow.
After weeks of Germany refusing to allow its Western allies to send their Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, Berlin has finally authorized Poland to send its German-made Leopard tanks to Kyiv to fight the Russian invasion.
While the U.S. Treasury is taking extreme measures to avert a crisis as the June debt ceiling deadline approaches, the Biden administration has promised another $2.5 billion in military aid to Ukraine. On Thursday, Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, announced the aid package and vowed that the U.S. “will stand united with Ukraine for as long as it takes.”
For the first time since Russia invaded Ukraine 11 months ago, Ukrainian troops have arrived on U.S. soil. American military officials have announced that Ukrainian forces have arrived in the U.S. and will begin training at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.