Russian President Vladimir Putin didn’t invade Ukraine in 2022 because he feared NATO. Putin had convinced himself by the end of 2021 that Russia had the opportunity to safely launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine to accomplish two distinct goals: establish Russian control over Ukraine without facing significant Western resistance and break the unity of NATO.
The U.S. House of Representatives approved a $300 million tranche for Ukraine late on Sept. 28 after Republicans removed it from the defense spending bill, Politico reported.
Other members of Germany’s ruling coalition have approved sending Taurus missiles to Ukraine. On Sept. 4, German MP Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann wrote on Twitter that "he (Scholtz) alone blocks this decision within the coalition".
The House Rules Committee convened at night on Sept. 27 to remove the funding for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative from the defense spending package and instead had it stand as a separate bill, the outlet said.
The primary reason for the need to transfer the missiles, argued Parliamentary Defense Committee Head Hristo Gadzhev, was the missiles were too old to be of use to the Bulgarian military, and that even their original manufacturer would be unable to repair them.