The lame-duck Biden administration has lifted a de facto ban on American military contractors deploying to Ukraine. The change had reportedly been formally approved a month before the election, but is officially taking effect now.
The move is being framed as necessary in order to maintain sophisticated equipment and defense technology provided to Ukraine by Western allies. "In order to help Ukraine repair and maintain military equipment provided by the US and its allies, DoD (Department of Defense) is soliciting bids for a small number of contractors who will help Ukraine maintain the assistance we’ve already provided,” a defense official was quoted in CNN as saying.
"These contractors will be located far from the front lines and they will not be fighting Russian forces. They will help Ukrainian Armed Forces rapidly repair and maintain US provided equipment as needed so it can be quickly returned to the front lines," the official added.
And yet this clearly marks another huge step toward opening the floodgates for US private military firms. Already, there's a significant presence of American foreign fighters in Ukraine, and this has already included foreign contractors on the ground.
However, American companies have never been able to operate inside Ukraine while servicing DOD contracts. US companies have so far been there under Ukrainian government contracts.
The Pentagon has further explained this as necessary in order to urgently work on systems like F-16s and Patriots missile batteries, which "require specific technical expertise to maintain."
"It is worth noting that there already are a wide array of American companies who have personnel in Ukraine fulfilling contracts for the Ukrainian government, so this will not lead to a substantial increase of employees of US companies working on the ground in Ukraine," a defense official was quoted separately in Stripes as saying.
In a sense this just cuts out the Ukrainian 'middleman' - given that Washington has sunk billions of dollars into Kiev's coffers. From there, Ukraine used the American funds to then go and hire American companies.
So to a large degree billions in US taxpayer's funds have been flowing the whole time from main street into the pockets of the major defense firms... who were already operating in Ukraine. Just now it will be a more direct process - the funds will get to the US defense companies faster.
President-Elect Trump has meanwhile promised to end the war between Ukraine and Russia "within 24 hours" if being sworn into office. As for the lifting of the ban on US defense contractors, it's unclear whether he'll keep that policy in place. Very likely he won't do anything to reverse it.
https://www.zerohedge.com/military/biden-lifts-ban-us-defense-contractors-operating-ukraine
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