Blinken covers Neil Young to accompany delivery of new weapons to Ukraine

(Originally published May 15 in “What in the World“) After delaying a shipment of 2,000-pound bombs to pressure Tel Aviv to exercise restraint in Rafah, the White House is proceeding with the transfer of almost $1.3 billion in weapons to Israel.

The new shipment, according to The Wall Street Journal, will include $700 million in tank ammo, $500 million in tactical vehicles and $60 million in mortar rounds. It will come as Israeli tanks push into Rafah and its air force revives strikes on Gaza City and other Hamas positions in northern Gaza.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, meanwhile, left the Middle East and traveled to Kyiv to lend his own musical flourish to the resumption of $60 billion in military aid to Ukraine. The question now is whether fresh weaponry will get to the Ukrainian soldiers fast enough to push back a new Russian offensive in northeastern Kharkiv province. Kyiv now warns that Russian troops are massing farther north across the border from Sumy province.

While Blinken was rockin’ in a Kyiv bar, Ukrainian legislators were in Washington lobbying Congress to lift U.S. prohibitions on using American weaponry to launch strikes across the border in Russia. While the U.K. has lifted such restrictions on use of the long-range missiles it is giving Kyiv, Washington still insists that Ukraine not start lobbing U.S. missiles into Russia for fear of provoking World War III. But Ukraine argues the restriction is preventing it from attacking Russian troops as they amass for new offensives like the one they appear to be preparing in Sumy.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, will make his first foreign trip since reelection in March to Beijing, where he’ll meet with China’s President Xi Jinping and undoubtedly try to shore up economic ties and win more military support from China. China has been careful not to provide direct military aid to Moscow for the war in Ukraine, though Washington has accused Beijing of providing dual-use equipment—such as the commercially available drones and drone parts—that end up in the hands of Russia’s troops.