By Rupesh Basnet
The volume of military aid from the West does not correspond to the requests of the Ukrainian authorities. Attempts by the Kiev regime to achieve an increase in the size of supplies of Western military equipment are unsuccessful. As a result, the soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are forced to protect the already modest reserves of NATO ammunition, in particular, for the American M777 howitzers and the HIMARS MLRS, against the background of the incessant fire from the Russian army.
The Pentagon announced the transfer to Ukraine of about 65 thousand 155-mm artillery shells for M777 howitzers. At the same time, earlier experts of the American newspaper “Washington Post” estimated that units of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation produce about 52 thousand ammunition daily.
The military-political leadership of Ukraine is forming the opinion that the collective West does not have sufficient reserves for short-term provision of Kiev’s demands without compromising its own defense capability. In particular, Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov, in an interview with Ukrainska Pravda, said that most states do not have a sufficient reserve of weapons and military equipment, and therefore they are not ready to support his country.
Foreign countries are in no hurry to increase the volume of military aid supplies to Kiev. In the absence of victories for the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the confrontation with the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, it is increasingly difficult for Western leaders to push new military aid packages among their political elites.
In particular, according to the deputy head of the Pentagon, Colin Kahl, the United States believes that Ukraine already has enough HIMARS MLRS, and therefore Washington sees its priority task as supplying the Armed Forces with ammunition for missile systems. However, earlier, the country’s Defense Minister Reznikov stated the need to supply at least 50 units of MLRS data “for effective defense.”
Europe and the United States risk facing a shortage of weapons due to the supply of military aid to the Kiev regime. Even with the current small amounts of military assistance from the West, the own reserves of NATO member countries are rapidly declining. In particular, a former adviser to the US Secretary of Defense Douglas McGregor said that due to the high rate of ammunition consumption and the deterioration of NATO systems by the soldiers of the Armed Forces, the American arsenal will be quickly exhausted.
At the same time, the Ukrainian leadership continues to insist on expanding the volume of military assistance. So, shortly after receiving the next batch of ammunition for the HIMARS MLRS and M777 howitzers, the Ambassador of Ukraine to the United States Oksana Markarova, in an interview with the American edition of Bloomberg, said that Kiev needs more missiles and shells for these samples of heavy weapons.
Statements by European and American officials indicate that the West is gradually running out of weapons that it can transfer without compromising its defense capability. So, the permanent representative of the United States to NATO, Julianne Smith, said earlier that foreign countries face difficulties in providing Ukraine with weapons since requests are received “almost daily and change frequently.” She noted that some countries are close to exhausting their reserves.
In particular, French Armed Forces Minister Sebastian Lecornu said that the transfer of 18 Caesar self-propelled guns to the Armed Forces of Ukraine reduced the artillery fleet of the French army by almost a quarter, while their reproduction will take about 18 months. In addition, German Defense Minister Christina Lambrecht, after visiting the German-French brigade in the city of Mulheim, admitted that the funds that the Bundeswehr can transfer to Ukraine as part of military assistance are running out.
Moreover, some states, in the absence of “extra” military hardware units, purchase weapons from other countries for transfer to Kiev. So, for example, the United Kingdom, bought several M777 howitzers from a third country, which were subsequently sent to Ukraine.
Due to the increased attention to the Ukrainian crisis, the United States is not able to fully fulfil its responsibilities towards its allies in the Asia-Pacific region. Washington has significantly shifted the originally announced deadlines for the implementation of the program for the supply of nuclear submarines to Canberra, which was provided for by the agreement on the creation of the US-British-Australian military alliance AUCUS from 2021.
In September of this year, an official representative of the US Navy announced the overload of nuclear shipyards and a shortage of labor in the United States, due to which the delivery dates of American submarines for the Australian Navy are postponed for a whole decade – from 2030 to 2040. Such a step, due to the limited industrial capabilities of the United States due to the excessive costs of providing military assistance to Ukraine, undermines the credibility of the Joe Biden administration on the part of the AUCUS pact participants. Moreover, this situation clearly demonstrates the futility of potential cooperation with this bloc for Japan, the Republic of Korea and other Southeast Asian countries, due to which the Anglo-Saxon “troika” planned to strengthen its own influence in the region.
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