Ukraine used American Cluster Bombs deliverd by missiles on the city of Belgrade, RU approximatly 50km NW of Ukrainian lines facing Russian Forces.
Russia retaliated with the largest and most devasting 3-day Missile attack on Ukraine since the war started.
Ukrainian officials, to include, Pres Zelinski, are now stating that the missile defense provided by the US/NATO is now ineffective.
The ramifications of these pronouncements are that the Air Defense Artillery the US Army uses, and exports to allies, in ineffective.
Was this the reason for visit by SecDef to Kiev? The damage to the US military sales would be a disaster for the Military Industrial Complex. They know these hypersonic missiles cannot be stopped with what we have sent to Ukraine in it’s current version. Our Navy has the best ADA and missile defense arrays which probably could work but untested to date.
US Foreign Policy pronouncements are that “NO NATO OFFICERS or OFFICIALS are in Kiev/Ukraine”.
The US and Russia have a protocol whereby notification of high ranking officials are made and Russia will know not to target these specific locations for the duration of each visit.
This was a secret meeting.
The Biden Administration and DOD circumvented Congress by failure to notify them. They also failed to notify Russia.
Immediately after Ukraine used Cluster Bombs on the city of Belgrade, Russia vowed to return the favor. They announced that they would immediatly deploy the 2S43 Malva self-propelled howitzer w/cluster munitions to the front. https://www.newsweek.com/russia-military-2s43-malva-howitzer-ukraine-himars-artillery-1820411
Engaging in a secret rendezvous was probably an American attempt to get Ukraine to immediatly stop the escalation in the war from using the Cluster Munitions on a Civilian target.
Ukraine was hoping to cause Putin to lose the upcoming election by making him seem unable to defend his civilian population.
As a result of the Belgrade attack, the three day missile offensive which may have killed the Ukrainian Sec Def seems to point to that Austion traveled from Kiev, to Germany, then to the States, immediatly after this attack.
Russia is now preparing to ensure it can protect Belgrade by extending their front 50-120km SE and at the same time put their Himars cluster artillery against any target within 70-80km of their front lines to break the Ukrainian positions. This new version of the cluster bomb artillery is primarily designed to take out hard targets like factorys, bunkers, and less so for killing the infantrymen.
Belgrade is the capital of Serbia
Belgorod, Moscovy (Russia) is a city some 50 km from Ukraine.
The 2S43 Malva has a maximum range of 24.5 km, and is not called HIMARS; it is classed as ordinary artillery - nothing special.
The US HIMARS has a range of 92 km - 150 km with ATACMS the range is 300 km
The US SEC DEF is not Austion, but Austin.
Did you write this Moscovy puff piece yourself? Next time at least get the names correct. We know that English is difficult to master, so we suggest signing up for a course at https://www.babbel.com/