US has sent Mi-17 helicopters to Ukraine as 'war has changed': Pentagon spokesperson

The new trenches of the military aid shipped by the United States Department of Defence to support the Ukrainian Armed Forces include advanced and “most sensitive” weaponry— the Russian-manufactured Soviet-era S-300 launchers, 155 mm howitzers, noticeable upgrade in long-range artillery, and in a first, 11 Soviet-designed Mi-17 helicopters.

Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby who had doubled down on supplying Ukraine with Soviet-era MiG-29 fighter jets, and had rejected Poland’s proposal of assisting Ukraine with aircraft, labelling the idea as “untenable” had a change of tone earlier on Tuesday, April 19.

As he attended a press call with reporters in Washington, Kirby said, “We do the best we can with each package to tailor it to the need at the time, and now the need has changed.”

The Pentagon spokesperson had clearly said earlier that sending the aircraft to Kyiv to counter Russia’s aggression was both “logistically challenging and risky.” Further, he had asserted that the United States “will not want to transfer planes” and had hindered the EU nations from sending aircraft. On Tuesday, however, as the Biden administration approved a new $800 million military package that dramatically expanded the weaponry and involved helicopters, Kirby said that the package “suits well with Kyiv’s existing arsenal.” Ukraine has also received fighter aircraft and related parts from other ally nations, Kirby told reporters at the briefing. 

'The war has changed': Pentagon

When asked what changed the mindset of Washington, the Pentagon spokesperson iterated: “The war has changed, because now the Russians have prioritised the Donbass area, and that’s a whole different level of fighting, a whole different type of fighting.” He was referring to the renewed assaults in Ukraine's Donbass region, where heavily outnumbered Russian forces faced off with critically under weaponised Ukraine’s Army. Kirby informed that the US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has a “plan in place” to train Ukraine soldiers to use howitzers and other advanced weapons system. “It will be outside the country,” he told a reporter. 

“The plan is in place and we expect to be able to get that training accomplished very, very soon, in a matter of days,” Kirby said.

There would be an onerous training process for Ukrainian forces to use counter artillery radar, coastal defence unmanned systems, and portable air defense radar systems, the Sentinel, which is towed behind a vehicle. Kirby acknowledged that Ukraine has received fixed-wing aircrafts from European allies although he hesitated to openly give details of the same. “Answer to I guess the question that I three times failed to answer, but the short answer is -- is yes,” he said when asked if US was considering the Ukrainians request for providing the military aircrafts to enter air assault combat operations against invading Russian fighter jets. 

'Buy me a fighter jet': Ukraine Air Force starts crowdfunding campaign

Just days ago, after facing rejection from the EU allied nations and US to their demand of a fighter jet, the Ukraine Air Force launched the “Buy me a fighter jet” crowdfunding campaign. It stated that the European governments and others around the world are “afraid of escalation and the conflict spreading beyond Ukraine” and have refused to help as their cities came under heavy airstrikes. NATO had also refused to impose a no-fly zone over the Ukrainian skies.

In the campaign video that has gone viral, Ukraine’s Air Force pilots appealed to the world’s prominent professionals including singers, actors and business owners to help them buy a fighter jet to chase President Vladimir Putin’s forces out of their territory.

“We ask you, Philanthropist, to use your financial, organisational and political capabilities to buy and hand over a fighter jet to us,” the appeal on  buymeafighterjet.com read. “One plane can save thousands of innocent lives.”