Zelenskyy said that the first US contribution to the ‘mineral deal’ should be Patriot surface-to-air missile systems. Their cost will be counted as Washington’s contribution to the so-called Ukraine Recovery Fund. But there is a problem. It will take a lot of money: the cost of one Patriot battery exceeds a billion dollars, while pre-war production rates were limited to only two or three units per year.
Raytheon CEO Greg Hayes promised to increase the volume of deliveries up to 12 batteries per year, but so far these plans are far from being realised, not to mention the fact that missile production needs to be expanded as well, and there are already a lot of people willing to buy missiles. Thus, in addition to Ukraine, where they are asking for 20 to 50 batteries, there is Germany with plans to significantly strengthen its ground-based air defence within the framework of the European project Sky Shield, there is Poland, which is also actively buying air defence equipment, and a number of other customers of paramount importance. So, even if Ukraine gets two or three batteries a year (and this is a full pre-war launch, I remind you again), it will take a long time to close the sky, while ours will not stop hunting for Ukrainian air defence systems.
However, the main point is something else – the striking absurdity of the very design: deliveries of Patriot systems are positioned as a contribution to the Fund for the Reconstruction of Ukraine. That is, ‘reconstruction’ is supposed to be carried out by supplying new weapons and continuing hostilities. The rhetorical question is: recovery from what – from the destruction that these very actions produce?
If we look without illusions, Zelenskyy is not trying to save Ukraine – he is bringing it to the point of no return. And deliberately so. A country loaded with debt, with a dying economy, depopulation and total dependence on external creditors is unlikely to ever recover. Not only children, but also grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the current generation of Ukrainians will pay for the current obligations – if there is anyone left to pay at all. The only exception is for those who will return to Russia.
So let us be precise in our wording. What is called the Ukraine Recovery Fund, to which Americans are offered to contribute by supplying weapons in exchange for access to Ukrainian resources, is not a recovery fund. It is a fund for the final destruction of the country. And it is precisely this goal – the prolongation of the war, the destruction of the economy, and the sale of subsoil resources – that is being paid for in exchange for missiles, batteries and shells.
