Search by Topic / Keyword...
Topic:
Moral Paralysis
Country:
USA & Europe
Issue:
Article ID:
32
Title:
Kyiv Blog: the West has no goal in the Russo-Ukraine war.
Author:
Ben Aris
Date:
March 14, 2023
Source:
IntelliNews
Reference:
Summary:
Quotes:
The West has no war goal for the fighting in Ukraine as the conflict goes into its second year. So far, the policy has been “to make sure Ukraine doesn’t lose” but not to ensure it wins. The West has been increasingly supplying Ukraine with more and more powerful weapons, but always in insufficient amounts and always with a delay that does not change the tide of the conflict to Kyiv’s advantage. In the most glaring example, Western nations rushed to pledge Ukraine over 460 of the modern Germany-made Leopard 2 main battle tanks (MBTs) following a Ramstein meeting on January 22. At least 42 of these were supposed to be on the field by March; however, only two have arrived from Poland, which is promising to send another 10 this month... The token presence of two Leopard 2 MBTs on the battlefield will make no difference to the war effort at all. Zelenskiy has said that Ukraine needs 3-4 battalions of tanks to make progress in the fight – all of the 400-plus tanks that were initially promised... But the biggest supply problem is Kyiv is running low on crucial 155mm artillery shells – the workhorse of the military effort for both sides. As bne IntelliNews reported, the US sent Ukraine one million of these shells at the start of the war but only produces around 100,000 a year. Zelenskiy has recently called for a second million shells to be sent to Ukraine, but it is unclear where they will come from, as the US has already depleted its surplus stocks. The US and Germany have promised to invest in expanded production, but the amounts dedicated are insufficient to see the ten-fold increase in production needed, and Western powers remain reluctant to invest the billions of dollars required to achieve the necessary increase in production... “The administration doesn’t have a clear policy objective and a clear goal. Is it to drag this thing out, which is precisely what Vladimir Putin wants?” Michael McCaul, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said as cited by Politico. “Is it to just give them enough to survive and not to win? I don’t see a policy for victory right now, and if we don’t have that, then what are we doing?”
Key Data:
Notes: