 U.S. seeks Russian military equipment in South America for transfer to Ukraine. Nine countries in South America possess Russian military equipment, which the U.S. could potentially transfer to Ukraine, according to Laura Richardson, commander of U.S. Southern Command. According to her, nine countries in South America have Russian military equipment. The U.S. proposes to exchange this equipment for use in Ukraine and replace it with American equipment, which is much better than Russian-made equipment. The American general did not name the countries in question, but Argentina, Guyana, Venezuela and Haiti are mentioned in the text. There is also information that Uruguay, Ecuador, Cuba and Nicaragua have Soviet equipment in their armed forces. Argentina has transferred two multi-purpose MI-171E helicopters to Ukraine, which were previously purchased in Russia. Also in January of last year, Laura Richardson already stated that the U.S. was seeking Soviet weapons in Central and Southern American countries. Recently, Greece has also reportedly decided to arm Ukraine with Soviet Origin S-300, surface-to-air missile systems. The military transfer, according to reports, could eventually include other Soviet origin military equipment, including prototypes of the ZU-232 anti-aircraft gun and the TOR and OSSA short-range mobile air defense systems. The Pentagon documents that were leaked in February last year revealed that the stockpiles of missiles for Ukraine's S-300 and Buk-Sams were expected to be completely depleted by early May. Although a predecessor of the highly advanced Russian S-400, this missile system is still deemed capable of countering ballistic and cruise missiles. The several variants of the S-300 deployed in the current battle have co-played as Ukraine's primary armor and an indelible part of its layered missile defense system against Russian attacks. According to local reports in the Greek media, the country approved the delivery of S-300s only after the U.S. approved the sale of F-35A stealth fighters to Athens, establishing a direct link between the two decisions. The U.S. approved the sale of 40 F-35 aircraft to Greece, estimated to cost $8.6 billion. Putin wants to use record election victory to prolong war in Ukraine. The experts from the Institute for the Study of War believe that Russian President Vladimir Putin is trying to use his record victory in the presidential elections as a precondition for a protracted war in Ukraine. The Institute for the Study of War ISW said this. Analysts say that Putin is trying to use the claimed record voter turnout and support for his candidacy to create information preconditions for a protracted war in Ukraine. Putin and senior Russian officials claimed that the record voter turnout and high public support for Putin demonstrated Russia's unity and trust in Putin. The Russian Central Election Commission announced on the 18th of March that Putin had won the presidential election with 87.28% of the vote. Ella Pamilova, the head of the Russian Central Election Commission, said that the voter turnout in the elections in Russia was 77.44%, which was a record number. The Russian Central Election Commission had announced that voter turnout in the 2018 presidential election in Russia was 67.47%, with Putin winning with 76.67% of the vote. In addition, the Commission said that Putin received between 88.12% and 95.23% of the vote in occupied Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia and Kursan Oblasts and Crimea. The review indicates that Russian occupation officials may have falsified the record high support for Putin in occupied Ukraine and may have forced Ukrainian citizens to participate in the elections which were inherently coercive given the large number of Russian troops operating in occupied Ukraine. Experts also add that Putin is likely to continue his efforts to create information conditions to justify the continued occupation of Ukraine's territories under the guise of protecting civilians who are in danger only because of the Russian invasion.