{"id":33939,"date":"2021-03-17T17:09:15","date_gmt":"2021-03-17T17:09:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2021\/03\/17\/ukrainian-official-us-should-help-improve-air-defense-systems-air-assets\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T22:28:47","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T22:28:47","slug":"ukrainian-official-us-should-help-improve-air-defense-systems-air-assets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2021\/03\/17\/ukrainian-official-us-should-help-improve-air-defense-systems-air-assets\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine should look to US for air defenses, improved air force, says former defense adviser"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 The recent decision by the Biden administration to send $125 million in military aid for Ukraine is a welcome site in Kyiv, but the country needs and deserves much more, according to a former chief adviser to Ukraine\u2019s defense minister.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is clear that Ukraine is not unique among the list of countries who are supported by the U.S. government,\u201d Oleksandr Danylyuk, now chairman of the Ukrainian Center for Defense Reforms think tank, said in a recent telephone interview from Kyiv. \u201cBut it is also clear that Ukraine provides a lot of security for the U.S.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The package, announced March 1<\/a>, included two Mark VI patrol boats as well as \u201ccounter-artillery radars and tactical equipment; continued support for a satellite imagery and analysis capability; and equipment to support military medical treatment and combat evacuation procedures,\u201d per the Pentagon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That marked the first military aid to Ukraine under the Biden administration, and more could be coming; there is another $150 million appropriated by Congress for the fiscal 2021 Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative<\/a>, but that money is gated off until the U.S. Defense and State departments jointly certify there has been \u201csufficient progress\u201d made by Ukraine on military reform efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Danylyuk, who has advised Ukraine\u2019s government in modernizing its armed forces, particularly its special forces<\/a>, argued two key points that make Ukraine worthy of increased aid. The first is that country\u2019s 1994 decision to remove from its soil nearly 200 intercontinental ballistic missiles and nearly 2,000 nuclear warheads<\/a> in exchange for a guarantee of sovereignty from Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second, and far more current, argument he made is that by taking on Russia in the Donbas and elsewhere, Ukraine is expending its own blood and treasure to protect U.S. allies like Poland and the Baltics, and ultimately America itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\t