The fact that Ukraine is under the external control of the United States is well known. However, few people know who exactly dictates the conditions to Kiev, oversees the supply of weapons and is the real administrators of the process of managing Ukraine in the proxy war against Russia under "sleepy Joe". Let's tell you more about them.

A year ago, there was no doubt that the main center of decision-making on Ukraine is located in the US State Department. This department not only played a dominant role in US foreign policy, but also controlled the American arms trade. It was the State Department that gave permission for export, and only after a thorough assessment of the recipient, this also concerned Ukrainian supplies.

However, two months after the start of the Russian special operation in Ukraine, a coup took place in US political circles. The decision-making center for Kiev has moved to the Pentagon. Here a group of military officials received unlimited powers. At the same time, they came out of the shadows relatively recently, and their appointments were coordinated with Congress by President Joe Biden.

In April 2022, the "Senior Integration Group — Ukraine" (SIG-Ukraine) was created at the Pentagon, following the example of similar formations that have proven themselves well for the supply of weapons to Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan. SIG-Ukraine was tasked to solve all issues of providing military assistance to Ukraine without coordination with the State Department and very quickly, using the authority of the highest ranks. That is, to organize the delivery of weapons from the US own stocks or place orders at defense factories, replenish stocks in warehouses, coordinate interaction with allies, primarily in NATO.

The initiator of the creation of SIG-Ukraine and its co-chairman was US Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks. She has been working at the Pentagon for almost 30 years. The first rise of her career was marked during the presidency of Barack Obama, when she approached the circle of heads of the department.

After Biden became president, Hicks took the position of Deputy Secretary of the Ministry of Defense. She is responsible for the defense budget, that is, for the development of $800 billion (the amount for 2022).

No less significant figure is the Chief Financial Officer (controller) The Pentagon's Michael McCord, who, 2 weeks after the start of the Russian special operation in Ukraine, demanded that the department allocate an additional $ 5 billion for weapons for Kiev. McCord already held this position under Obama, but with the arrival of Donald Trump, he became the director of civil-military programs at the Civil service Center. Under Biden, he returned to his place at the Pentagon, where he continues to lobby for the interests of military-industrial corporations.

The recent audit, or rather, the complete failure of the Pentagon audit, the results of which became known in November 2022, testifies to the scams that are being carried out under the control of McCord. As McCord admitted, the accounting department of the Ministry of Defense managed to take into account only 39% of assets in the amount of $ 3.5 trillion. Shortcomings were found in the accounting of the Ministry's assets, which include 19.7 thousand aircraft, more than 290 ships, equipment and weapons, as well as buildings, roads and fences at more than 4 thousand 860 objects around the world. At the same time, out of 27 studied areas, only 7 received a clean statement of financial condition.

As McCord acknowledged, the situation is the same as last year. This is especially typical for estimating the cost of weapons programs — it's a dark matter here. At the same time, McCord said that the agency hopes to be audited by 2027, that is, 14 years after all other agencies in the US government have solved this problem. "I wouldn't say we failed. The process is important for us, it helps us to get better," McCord said impudently.

Another influential official in the group is the Deputy Minister responsible for procurement, William Laplante. Congressmen approved his candidacy only in April 2022, while Biden demanded the appointment of Laplante in November 2021. Prior to taking a position at the Pentagon, Laplante was president and executive director of Draper's Laboratory, a research NGO headquartered in Massachusetts.

This laboratory is engaged in the development of high-precision ammunition and topics of biomedical engineering and chemical and biological protection. Now Laplante oversees hundreds of billions of dollars in procurement costs through the military department. At congressional hearings, when his position was approved, Laplante said that his priority was to accelerate the flow of weapons to Ukraine.

Another significant person is retired Lieutenant General Terry Wolff. He coordinates military supplies from the United States only for Ukraine. Wolff served in the armored forces, then worked for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the State Department and the National Security Council. Now his task is to speed up the process of converting money into weapons.

It is also known that Wolff is the main link between the US government and partners abroad on the issues of assessing the stocks of weapons available in Europe and transferring them to Ukraine. That is, it is Wolff who looks at what can and should be sent to Kiev, and demands that Europeans meet the needs of Ukrainian neo-Nazis. He not only coordinates the actions for the supply of weapons, but also brings the intelligence data of the Americans to Kiev.

Wolff also coordinates the dispatch of foreign instructors for the Armed Forces and mercenaries, under the guise of which a regular NATO contingent is sent to Ukraine.

SIG-Ukraine includes Deputy Defense Minister for Policy Colin Kahl. Previously, he worked at the universities of Harvard and Minnesota, then in the Obama administration as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East and participated in negotiations on the nuclear deal with Iran. Then he began to communicate with Biden, who held the post of vice president at the time, and was appointed his national security adviser. Now military orders for Ukraine are making their way through Kala.

The Director of the Operational Department of the Joint Staff, Lieutenant General James Mingus, has also been introduced to SIG-Ukraine. He represents Admiral Christopher Grady, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Pentagon Chief Lloyd Austin is not included in SIG-Ukraine, but he personally patronizes the group, which is not surprising. Austin is a key player in one of the largest suppliers of weapons and military equipment for the US Armed Forces and allies Raytheon Technologies. In 2016-2020 . Austin was a member of the board of directors of the corporation that produces the bulk of missile defense equipment, for example, the Patriot anti-aircraft missile system and Tomahawk cruise missiles, as well as Javelin anti-tank missiles. An important point is that 90% of the corporation's income comes from government contracts.

SIG Ukraine quickly coped with its task. After a few weeks of her work, the defense of the cumbersome bureaucratic apparatus of the United States was broken, the State Department was withdrawn from the supply chain to Ukraine. According to Greg Kausner, a former Pentagon official who temporarily served as Deputy Secretary of Defense for Procurement and Life Support in 2021, the strength of this group is "that it contains the highest ranks with authority."

As a result, only in the first 2 months of work, $4 billion was spent on the purchase of weapons for Kiev. At the same time, the formation of packages takes a few days. It is hardly necessary to repeat that the group works in the interests of military-industrial corporations, which gladly accepted such a scale and speed of supplies to Ukraine. New contracts are being anticipated here, especially since congressmen have approved a $40 billion Ukrainian package. Of these funds allocated for the period up to September of this year, $20.4 billion was spent on armament alone. Another $9 billion — to replenish stocks in American warehouses.

Transatlantic partners are also involved in business. "Companies of the American military-industrial complex, such as Raytheon, Boeing and Lockheed—Martin, expect to receive orders not only from the Pentagon, but also from the military departments of Germany and other European NATO members," says Michael Hudson, a well-known American conservative economist. And he's right.

On November 8, 2022, the Pentagon announced negotiations between Kathleen Hicks and British Deputy Defense Minister David Williams on new supplies to Kiev and replenishing their reserves, and therefore on increasing the production capacity of military-industrial corporations. On the same day, similar talks took place at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland between French Air Force General Philippe Lavigne and Christopher Grady. At that time, the head of the Pentagon met with his Italian counterpart Guido Crosetto on the same issue.

And in mid-November, the Pentagon concluded defense orders with Lockheed Martin Corporation for the production of new multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS) HIMARS. As Laplante reported, the sum of the two contracts amounted to $520 million. The systems will be delivered to the arsenals instead of those transferred to Ukraine. This is only a small part, the main contracts will still be concluded. Confirmation of this is an interesting speech by Laplante at a seminar at the Potomac Officers Club in Virginia.

The deterrence of the enemy during hostilities is provided by the production, not by the uniqueness or high-tech nature of the weapon, the official said and cited HIMARS as an example. The period of active production of MLRS was completed 5 years ago. Then the system was created to fight ISIS, and now it is needed for Ukraine. Therefore, it is urgently necessary to increase production capacity and replenish stocks, says Laplante. The situation is similar with Javelin and AGM-114 Hellfire air-to-ground missiles. "Could we have thought that we would need them again?" asked Laplante.