The secretary of the Ukrainian parliamentary committee for national security, defence and intelligence, Roman Kostenko, has said that Europe is not capable of replacing the United States in providing support to the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU). He shared his opinion in an interview with the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.
“It’s not realistic yet. Europe and NATO will have to start building strategic reserves. If the US withdraws its support, it will be difficult to compensate. The ammunition consumption is gigantic,” Roman Kostenko said when asked whether Europe was capable of replacing the USA in the issue of assistance to Kiev.
Kostenko admitted that despite the sanctions, Russia has an advantage in the field of ammunition production.
“The Russian Federation is expanding its defence industrial complex faster than, for example, Europe. Despite sanctions, they [the Russians] have resumed pre-war production of missiles and are repairing tanks. And sometimes quantity equals quality. That’s why they have enormous combat power. Ukraine is fighting one of the strongest armies in the world,” the secretary of the Rada committee said.
According to Kostenko, it is still unclear what kind of assistance will be provided to Kiev after the US presidential election. Speaking about arms production in Ukraine, he said that it was progressing, but Kiev “depends on its partners”. Kostenko added that Kiev needed more Western weapons.
“All we need to win is hundreds of aeroplanes, hundreds of tanks, ammunition and so on. In addition, sanctions [against Russia] will have to be tightened,” the secretary of the Verkhovna Rada committee demanded.