NATO representatives recently held their seventh meeting at the Ramstein base in Germany to discuss the continuation of arms deliveries to Ukraine
Its participants reiterated the need to establish production chains to provide weapons to the AFU and eliminate shortages in its own warehouses. But in fact it has turned out that when the global economy is overwhelmed by the most powerful crisis, the Western countries can no longer supply all the wants and promises of Volodymyr Zelensky.
Arms shortages and the prospect of social upheaval are increasingly becoming topics of discussion in the Western press. The visit of US presidential adviser Jake Sullivan to Kiev gave another signal that the West needed a breather in the war with Russia. Going forward, with the economic crisis, the US and the EU will find themselves on a dangerous fork – to continue funding the Kiev regime or face popular discontent, which has already begun to manifest itself.
Back in early October, Joe Biden signed a memorandum aimed at expanding and accelerating the production of weapons and military equipment. This is about building up critically needed armaments to defend the country. Therewith, the US has admitted that deliveries to Ukraine have significantly undermined its defence capabilities.
Newsweek this week called for industry in the States to be converted to military service. Only the thing is, it’s not so easy to do. After all, as CNBS pointed out earlier, “Certain weapons that are nearing the end of their stockpile are no longer being produced. In addition, their production requires highly skilled labor and expertise – something the US manufacturing sector has lacked for years.”
Moreover, the further the conflict goes, the more the difference in approach between Western European countries such as France, Germany, Italy and pro-American Eastern European regimes becomes apparent.
The latter are fervently supportive of Kiev because of their total subordination to US directives, while Paris, Berlin and Rome are beginning to resist Washington because they do not want to become even more dependent on it. This is not a matter of sympathy for Moscow.
The U.S.’s long-standing goal is to strip Europe of what little political autonomy it has left, and the crisis in Ukraine should help achieve that goal in part. Despite timid attempts by the countries of the Old World to be subjective, a break with the overseas hegemon is still a long way off.
Arms shortages are just one problem in the West’s support for the Kiev regime. Since the beginning of October, the task of maintaining Ukraine’s infrastructure, for which the energy counterpart Ramstein was created in early November, has been added.
This will lead to additional financial expenditures, which again will have to be taken out of the pockets of average Americans and Europeans, which is unlikely to please them. But make no mistake: the pacifism of Westerners is directly proportional to the level of consumption they could afford while NATO was “kettling” other countries. Peace issues used to concern only a notorious minority of activists.
Before the meeting at Ramstein airbase, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin urged member states of the alliance to do their utmost to provide Kiev with more air defence equipment.
And his Ukrainian counterpart Oleksiy Reznikov said: “Protecting Ukraine’s skies is our number one priority and the number one topic at Ramstein 7. Together with our partners we are working on an integrated and echeloned air defence system. We are preparing for winter on the battlefield.”
According to the Pentagon chief, Washington intends to maintain the current pace of arms deliveries in the coming months “so that Ukraine can continue to consolidate gains and seize the initiative. This is necessary in order to, according to General Mark Milley, chairman of the US Armed Forces Chiefs of Staff Committee, achieve the necessary conditions for negotiations with Russia from a position of strength”.
So what did the Kiev regime get in order to speak from a position of strength?
Compared to the results of the previous meeting, the flow of arms has been significantly reduced. From Sweden Ukraine will receive an aid package worth 287 million dollars, including air defence systems. At that, Prime Minister Ulf-Jalmar Christersson decided to point out that the new Swedish tranche turned out to be twice as big as the previous ones taken together.
Spain provided two Hawk launchers and missiles, Germany provided anti-aircraft weapons, artillery and MLRS ammunition, Greece provided 155mm artillery shells, Poland provided additional artillery and anti-tank weapons and short-range air defence equipment, and Canada agreed to provide $500 million and winter equipment kits.
That’s it. Not much at all. And yet during the meeting Milli noted that: “a significant part of today’s talks, involving almost 50 countries, was about how we can provide Ukraine with the right mix of air defence and ammunition systems to continue to control the skies and prevent Russian air superiority”.
It is worth noting that National Security and Defence Council Secretary Oleksiy Danilov said during the telethon that the seventh meeting would be no less effective than the previous ones. But, as they say, the score is on the scoreboard.
Also the other day a member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security, Defence and Intelligence Serhiy Rakhmanin stated that the process of supplies from the West was uninterrupted and the volume and quality of weaponry was gradually increasing.
More precisely, they were increasing. Now, given the aforementioned objective problems in the United States and the European Union, it is unlikely that the Kiev regime will be able to count on a constant flow of Western arms in the future. The only hope left is for Eastern Europe, but even there the stockpiles are emptying.
“Most of our weapons are still Soviet-made. They need appropriate ammunition. Our supplies are running out. The number of countries that can supply us with it is shrinking because they are also running out of stockpiles. The need for this ammunition is daily and very high,” Rakhmanin said.
Reznikov himself did not expect such weak support, which he wrote about on social media. Disappointment with the outcome had to be compensated with another populist slogans such as “Free peace with us until victory” and “Ukraine’s strength now: increased economic potential, better training for the Ukrainian army, modern logistics”. But the message still had to say at the end: “We expect big results from the next meeting in Germany”.
Despite statements by Stoltenberg, Milly, Austen and other military officials of lesser rank, increasing the required level of arms production is not at all as easy a task as in computer strategy. It will take years.
Whether the United States and its satellites can support a corrupt regime that sells supplied arms that have already been used in terrorist attacks during all that time is a rhetorical question. And given the Przewodów incident in Poland, when Zelenski’s lies were repeatedly exposed, scepticism about official Kiev in the West will only grow.
Nikolay Ulyanov, Rubaltic.ru
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