The Biden administration has authorized US military contractors to deploy to Ukraine in a major escalation of US involvement in the war with Russia in Ukraine. The White House confirmed the move in a statement to multiple news outlets, including CNN and the Russian news outlet TASS.
The announcement follows the electoral defeat of Vice President Kamala Harris by the fascist Donald Trump. The indifference of the Biden-Harris administration and the Democratic Party to the worsening social conditions for working people in the United States was the principal factor in the electoral victory of the former president, but he was also able to make a demagogic appeal to popular hostility to the war in Ukraine.
With just two months left in office, the primary concern of the Biden administration is that the Ukraine war continue. To that end, Biden, seeking to create “facts on the ground,” has carried out this major escalation of the war.
“In order to help Ukraine repair and maintain military equipment provided by the US and its allies, DoD is soliciting bids for a small number of contractors who will help Ukraine maintain the assistance we’ve already provided,” the Pentagon spokesman told TASS.
The spokesperson added, “Some of the equipment the US has provided Ukraine—or will provide Ukraine in the coming months—such as F-16s and Patriot air defense systems require specific technical expertise to maintain.”
The Pentagon added, “Each US contractor, organization, or company will be responsible for the safety and security of their employees and will be required to include risk mitigation plans as part of their bids.”
The Pentagon spokesperson also said, “There are already US government contractors working in Ukraine as the Department of State and USAID have been directly contracting US companies to assist with a variety of tasks, including helping strengthen Ukraine’s energy grid and providing economic support.”
In reality, these military contractors will serve as a “tripwire.” If they are attacked, it can be used to instigate a campaign to demand the escalation of the war.
Last year, the World Socialist Web Site explained that one major consequence of high-tech weapons like the Abrams battle tank, as significant as their effect on the battlefield in Ukraine, was the required deployment of contractors to service them.
America’s vast fleet of M1 Abrams tanks is serviced by civilian contractors at Army bases throughout the world, and these civilian contractors are generally Americans with specialized knowledge and skills, including direct employees of General Dynamics and other major arms manufacturers. The Abrams, the Army’s most complex vehicle, requires about eight man-hours of maintenance for every hour it serves in operation.
Thousands of civilian maintenance personnel from NATO countries will be deployed to Ukraine, along with the creation of massive supply chains for the specialized high-tech, precision parts required to keep the machines in operation, stretching hundreds of miles from the eastern front through Poland and to US bases in Germany.
These supply lines and American personnel will likely become targets of Russian attacks on the weapons systems flowing into Ukraine. The demand, first raised early in the war, to “close the skies” and initiate a no-fly zone will quickly be raised by the entire US media, in order to “save the lives” of Americans deployed in Ukraine.
It is precisely such an escalatory spiral that the Biden administration is seeking to put into effect in its remaining time in office.
In an interview with the “Face the Nation” talk show on Sunday, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said that President Joe Biden will hold a meeting with President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday, during which Ukraine would be a major subject of discussion.
“President Biden will have the opportunity over the next 70 days to make the case to Congress and the incoming administration that the United States should not walk away from Ukraine, that walking away from Ukraine means more instability in Europe,” Sullivan said.
The Biden administration is also seeking to pass a major package of Ukraine funding through Congress, on top of the $174 billion that has already been spent on the war to date.
Over the weekend, Ukraine launched 34 drones on Moscow, in the largest attack on the Russian capital since the start of the war.
There are growing signs that Ukraine is facing a military collapse on the battlefield, with US newspapers claiming that Russia has massed 50,000 fresh troops, including allegedly troops supplied by North Korea, for an attack on Ukrainian troops that have captured territory in the Russian oblast (district) of Kursk. Ukrainian troops, meanwhile, continue to suffer major setbacks in eastern Ukraine.
In September, Russian President Vladimir Putin outlined a proposed update to Russia’s nuclear policy document that would expand the conditions under which Moscow would use nuclear weapons.
Putin said, “The updated version of the document proposes that aggression against Russia by any non-nuclear-weapon state, but with the participation or support of a nuclear-weapon state, should be considered as a joint attack on the Russian Federation.”
