Russia is planning to procure the U.S. weaponry left behind during the chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal by the US Army in August 2021, according to Russian Telegram channel General SVR.
Russian President Viladimir Putin has been in process of negotiating with Taliban to procure leftover arms to be used by Russian forces in the ongoing military offensive in Ukraine in exchange for recognizing the Taliban government, the Telegram channel reported informed sources as saying.
Those insider sources familiar with the development, and the details of the negotiations between the militant group and the Kremlin, said that the Taliban are extremely "surprised" with such a proposal" and that they have been "discussing the same earnestly."
As the United States Army had frantically pulled out of Afghanistan in August 2021, the Talibans captured massive stocks of Western artillery, attack helicopters, and up to 50,000 armored vehicles.
The US supplied 22,174 Humvees, 33 Black Hawk helicopters, 23 Super Tucano fighter planes, an estimated 115 Maxx Pros trucks, 634 M1117s armored vehicles, 549,118 machine guns, 16,035 pairs of night vision goggles, 162,043 radios and some 8,000 trucks. assault rifles, pistols, and 4 C-130 transport planes to the Afghan Air Force. A Department of Defense report stated that the United States Army had left behind an estimated $7.12 billion worth of military equipment in Afghanistan during the chaotic withdrawal that concluded on August 30, 2021.
Those military equipment was eventually seized by Taliban fighters as the Capital Kabul fell. The US Defense Department had "no plans" to either retrieve the left weaponry from the Taliban "or destroy" the equipment, a wide-ranging congressional mandated DoD report revealed. US military had handed the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) equipment ranging from aircraft, air-to-ground munitions, military vehicles, weapons, and communications equipment amounting to $18.6 billion between 2005 to August 2021, the DoD report stated.
The Taliban were seen parading through the streets of Afghanistan in U.S. armored vehicles that were first provided to the Afghan army. The United States left 23,825 Humvees in Afghanistan, including armored gun truck variants, and nearly 900 combat vehicles, officials familiar with the report said. "These weapons are potentially in the service of crushing human rights," according to Aref Dostyar, Afghanistan's former consul general in Los Angeles.
"It is important to remember that the $7.12 billion figure cited in the department's recent report to Congress corresponds to [Afghan National Defense and Security Forces] equipment and not U.S. military equipment used by our forces," said Foreign Policy last year quoted Maj. Rob Lodewick, a Defense Department spokesperson as saying. "Nearly all equipment used by U.S. military forces in Afghanistan was either retrograded or destroyed prior to our withdrawal and is not part of the $7.12 billion figure cited in the report."
NATO prepares escalation of war with Russia
Tellingly, as NATO is preparing a major escalation of the war against Russia in Ukraine, the government of President Volodymyr Zelensky is gripped by an intense crisis. On Tuesday, top officials including Zelensky's top adviser, six deputy ministers and five regional governors resigned or were dismissed by the Cabinet of Ministers amid widespread corruption allegations.
Kyrylo Timoshenko, Zelensky's deputy head of office, was the highest-ranking official to resign. Timoshenko was responsible for media content within the Zelensky regime. While no reason was given for his resignation, Timoshenko had previously been accused of using expensive cars donated to the Ukrainian government in order to evacuate civilians for his own personal use.
Earlier on Monday, Ukraine's Deputy Infrastructure Minister Vasyl Lozinskyi was fired and detained by police after being accused of accepting a bribe worth $400,000 for the purchase of generators. Russian missile strikes have caused widespread blackouts in recent months, leaving millions without power and access to critical infrastructure.
Meanwhile, 8 million out of Ukraine's pre-war population of 39 million have fled the country and another 8 million have been internally displaced. Within Ukraine, 11.4 million have only "insufficient food consumption," an increase of over 3 million over the the past three months, according to the World Food Program. Over one in five children (22.9 percent) in the country are now suffering from chronic malnutrition.
There are also indications that the Ukrainian military is in a state of crisis. Ukraine has suffered immense casualties during the war with US chief of staff Mark Milley indicating that 200,000 soldiers have either died or been wounded on both sides last November. Russia's population is more than three times larger than that of Ukraine.
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