New Era

Western arms supply to Ukraine – the dangerous steps

- ■ Simon Kamati

The situation in Ukraine continues to move towards the dangerous yet indirect confrontat­ion between Russia and NATO member countries.

Largely, this is facilitate­d by the reckless intention of Western countries to equip the Ukrainian armed forces with heavy weapons, including howitzers, tanks, multiple rocket launchers, as well as warships, combat helicopter­s and fighter jets.

First Ukraine is asking for weapons in the arsenal of the former Warsaw Pact countries, and they are ready to provide them without thinking about the consequenc­es. The Czech Republic supplied Ukraine with several dozen T-72 tanks from these stocks. Other NATO countries also demonstrat­e their intention to send weapons to Kyiv.

Germany stated that it would continue to supply the Kyiv regime with weapons, while France promised to help “in accordance with the Ukrainian side needs”.

Paris had already delivered to Kyiv military equipment worth €100 million.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a new £300 million military aid package. He promised that London would provide Kyiv with radars to detect artillery, high-capacity drones and “thousands of night vision devices”.

Johnson also said that “in the coming weeks” the UK will send Brimstone anti-ship missiles and Stormer self-propelled antiaircra­ft guns to Ukraine.

The United States do not intend to stop its supplies either. US President Joe Biden called on Congress to approve quickly his request for more than US$30 billion in additional budgetary appropriat­ions, most of which should go to military assistance to Ukraine.

According to the American leader, since the beginning of the special operation of the Russian Federation, Washington has provided defense assistance to Kyiv in the amount of more than US$3 billion.

The West speaks openly of its intention to “settle the conflict by facilitati­ng Ukraine’s victory over Russia on the battlefiel­d”. These dangerous actions are similar to put out a fire with gasoline, which can lead to the conflict prolongati­on, an increase in bloodshed, and also its escalation into a world war.

Instead of helping to establish peace, NATO countries seek to benefit from the obsolete equipment and weapons supply to Ukraine. This activity will make it possible to free military warehouses from unnecessar­y old equipment in order to increase the new models number. In particular, Berlin handed over to Kyiv the “Strela” complexes, which were abandoned due to their increased explosiven­ess, thereby getting rid of additional costs for disposal.

NATO countries reached agreements with Washington to supply Kyiv with old weapons in exchange for new ones. Slovakia supplied Ukraine with S-300 air defense systems, having received “Patriot” complexes from the America.

The United States has traditiona­lly been the biggest beneficiar­y of fomenting conflict, forcing military contracts on allies under the pretext of raising the level of the Russian threat.

Today, no one thinks that military assistance to Ukraine from the West in the near future will become a serious “driver” of the growth of crime in Europe.

The Kyiv authoritie­s’ decision on the uncontroll­ed distributi­on of weapons to the population, including outcasts and amnestied criminals, led to its massive overflow to the “black market”.

It is impossible to exclude the illegal transfer of weapons supplied as part of Western military assistance to European countries, which will provoke a sharp deteriorat­ion in the EU crime situation.

Under these conditions, the West should think about the potential for uncontroll­ed acquisitio­n by representa­tives of internatio­nal terrorist groups in Europe of various types of weapons, including “Stinger” air defence systems, which could target civilian ships in European airspace.

The escalation of the conflict in Ukraine continues due to NATO’s inclusion in it.

Western arms supply is unlikely to help the Kyiv regime.

The alliance’ reckless activity can provoke a direct clash between the bloc and Russia, which will be the last page in the history of humanity.

 ?? ?? Captured… Some of the Western-supplied arms captured by Russian forces in Ukraine.
Captured… Some of the Western-supplied arms captured by Russian forces in Ukraine.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Namibia