Biden urged to send Ukraine armed drones
16 US Senators push Pentagon to reconsider Gray Eagle drones for Kyiv
— A bipartisan group of 16 U.S. senators pressed the Biden administration to carefully reconsider Ukraine’s request for lethal Gray Eagle drones to fight Russia and asked the Pentagon to explain why it has not moved ahead, according to a copy of the letter.
The Biden administration has so far rejected requests for the armable MQ-1C Gray Eagle drone, which has an operational ceiling of 29,000 feet and would represent a great technological leap forward for Ukraine.
The rejection had been based on concerns the drones could be shot down, were not essential to Ukraine’s war effort and could escalate the conflict, but the Pentagon has not gone on record to confirm its stance.
Ukraine has made numerous appeals for the United States to supply it with the powerful drones, most recently with anti-drone missiles, hoping Washington will reverse its prior opposition, as Russia increasingly turns to kamikaze drones and attacks civilian infrastructure.
The senators, including Republican Joni Ernst and Democrat Joe Manchin, both of whom serve on the
Senate Armed Services Committee, expressed concern over U.S. opposition to the request, saying that provision of the armable drone “demands careful reconsideration.”
A Pentagon spokesman said, “As a matter of policy, we do not comment on our communication with elected officials.”
The senators gave Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin until Nov. 30 to explain why the Pentagon believed the drone was not appropriate for the fight in Ukraine, whether U.S. concerns related to technology transfer were surmountable, and if the Pentagon thought that introducing the drone, made by General Atomics, would further antagonize Russia.
The letter and its contents were reported on by the Wall Street Journal earlier on Tuesday.
Crimea hit by ‘drone attack’
KYIV (AFP) — Ukraine’s Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula was targeted by a drone attack on Tuesday, Kremlin-installed authorities said, adding that Moscow’s forces there were “on alert.”
The strike came as Kyiv claimed another territorial victory and just days after Moscow said it was strengthening its position on the Crimean peninsula.
“There is an attack with drones,” the governor of the Sevastopol administrative region in Crimea, Mikhail Razvozhayev, said on Telegram.
“Our air defense forces are working right now.”
He said two drones had “already been shot down.”
Razvozhayev said no civilian infrastructure had been damaged and called on residents to “remain calm.”
Moscow annexed Crimea in 2014 after nationwide pro-democracy demonstrations that led to the ouster of Ukraine’s Kremlin-friendly president.
It used the peninsula, which hosts several important Russian military bases, as a launching pad for its February invasion of Ukraine.
But in recent months Ukrainian forces have been pushing a counter-offensive in the south towards Crimea and earlier this month reclaimed Kherson, the capital of the region bordering the annexed peninsula.
There have been several explosions at or near Russian military installations in Crimea since February, including a coordinated drone attack on a key Russian naval port at Sevastopol in October.
Last week the Moscow-aligned governor of the territory, Sergei Aksyonov, said authorities were strengthening positions on the peninsula.
“Fortification work is being carried out… with the aim of guaranteeing the security of all Crimeans,” he said.
Ukraine said Tuesday it had recaptured almost the entire region of an isolated peninsula off the Black Sea, where fighting is ongoing.