WASHINGTON (AP) – The longer Ukraine’s army is repulsed by invading Russians, the more it absorbs the benefits of Western armaments and training – exactly the transformation that President Vladimir Putin wanted to prevent by invading in the first place.
The list of weapons that are being transferred to Ukraine is long and growing. It includes new American drones on the battlefield and state-of-the-art artillery from the United States and Canada. Also anti-tank weapons from Norway and others; armored vehicles and anti-ship missiles from Great Britain; and Stinger anti-aircraft missiles from the United States, Denmark and other countries.
If Ukraine manages to retain the Russians, its accumulating arsenal of Western weapons could have a transformative effect in a country that, like other former Soviet republics, relies heavily on Soviet-era weapons and equipment.
But maintaining this military aid will not be easy. This is expensive and politically risky for some supplier countries. It is also being removed from Western stocks, which will have to be replenished at some point. That’s why US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin is convening a meeting on Tuesday at Germany’s Ramstein Air Force Base to work out ways to continue this, now and in the long run. Defense ministers and senior military leaders from approximately 40 countries will take part.
The goal, Austin said, is not only to support Ukraine’s defense, but also to help them overcome a larger invading force.
“We believe they can gain, if they have the right equipment, the right support,” Austin said in Poland on Monday after returning from a visit to Kyiv with Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, which included a discussion of Ukraine’s military needs. He also said the goal was “to see Russia weakened to the point that it cannot do the things it did when it invaded Ukraine.”
Despite its first setbacks, the Russian military still has some advantages that will be tested in the Eastern Donbass region, where it is gathering more troops and firepower, even as the United States and its NATO allies struggle to gain artillery and more. armament to this area in time to make a difference.
As the outcome of the war is in doubt after two months of fighting, the Pentagon is providing 90 of the US Army’s most advanced howitzers, along with 183,000 artillery shells – and other sophisticated weapons that could give Ukrainians an important advantage in emerging battles. The United States is also organizing more training for Ukrainians on key weapons, including howitzers and at least two types of armed drones.
On Monday, Austin and Blinkon announced $ 713 million in foreign military funding for Ukraine and 15 allied and partner countries in Europe; about $ 322 million is earmarked for Kyiv, in part to support Ukraine’s transition to more modern weapons and air defense systems. The rest will be divided between NATO members and other nations that have provided Ukraine with important military supplies since the start of the war with Russia, officials said.
Such funding is different from previous US military aid to Ukraine. This is not a donation of weapons and equipment from the Pentagon’s stockpiles, but rather cash that countries can use to buy supplies they may need.
Ukrainians say they need more, including long-range air defense systems, fighter jets, tanks and missile systems.
“It is true to say that the United States is now leading efforts to ensure this transition of Ukraine to Western-style weapons, in organizing training for Ukrainian soldiers,” said Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, adding, “and I only regret it. that this did not happen a month or two ago from the beginning of the war. “
Philip Breedlove, a retired U.S. general who led NATO in Europe from 2013 to 2016, says his brief summary of what Putin wants in Ukraine and elsewhere on Russia’s periphery is “Weapons abroad, NATO back and without America.” .
“What has happened is that Mr Putin is getting exactly what he did not want. “It brings more weapons forward, it puts more NATO forward and it gets more America in Europe,” Breedlove said in an interview.
The complexity of maintaining Western military aid to Ukraine, even when its troops are fully engaged in a brutal war, is reminiscent of what is at stake. Before the invasion began, Putin said Moscow could not tolerate what he saw as the West’s attempt to make Ukraine a de facto member of NATO. He argues that Ukraine’s interest in going west and staying out of Russia’s orbit is due to “external forces” such as US pressure.
Putin has demanded that Ukraine relinquish NATO membership, and he also insisted on turning the clock back to 1997, before NATO began adding former Soviet and allied countries to its ranks.
There is little prospect of Ukraine joining NATO, but Russia’s war has actually brought NATO closer to Ukraine. The result is a boost to Ukraine’s prospects for building a successful defense, even in the eastern Donbass region, where the Russians have certain advantages and where Russian-backed separatists have been fighting since 2014.
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AP diplomat Matthew Lee contributed to this report.
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