What problems will NATO countries have when delivering weapons to Ukraine
Western countries promise to organize the supply of weapons and military equipment to Ukraine in an "endless stream", said the country's Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba. "Newspaper.Ru" figured out what the logistics of arms supplies could be and what difficulties its transportation might be associated with.
"I can't tell you everything, but this is an absolute priority for Ukrainian diplomacy right now. To protect Ukraine, a large amount of assistance continues to come from partners: from bulletproof vests and helmets to portable anti-aircraft missile kits and anti-tank installations," Dmitry Kuleba said at a briefing.
According to him, fuel, Javelin anti-tank missile systems, howitzers, small arms, personal protective equipment, portable anti-aircraft missile systems, grenade launchers, anti-aircraft systems, modern sniper rifles, ammunition for them, helmets, bulletproof vests, a large batch of MANPADS "Stinger" are being sent to Ukraine in an endless stream. Kuleba did not name the countries that will increase the supply of weapons "for security reasons."
The Foreign Minister of Ukraine stressed that he does not call on NATO to engage in hostilities on the territory of Ukraine. "We are waging war on our own, with our own physical forces. That's why we don't invite NATO," Kuleba said.
Germany's intention to transfer 2.7 thousand anti-aircraft missiles to Ukraine on March 2 was reported by Bild with reference to the German Ministry of Economy. Also, according to the publication, the agency approved the supply of Strela-type missiles to Kiev from the former reserves of the GDR Armed Forces.
The press secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov said that the supply of weapons and ammunition from the European Union to Ukraine "destabilize the situation, in the long term will have dangerous consequences."
"The Russian military controls the sky over Ukraine, but it remains without control of the western border. From there, no one interferes with carrying weapons on the ground, including in a continuous stream. Moreover, we are talking mainly about the supply of light weapons, individual - it can be transported even by thousands of units," he told the newspaper.Ru" military expert, Deputy Director of the Institute of Political and Military Analysis Alexander Khramchikhin.
At the same time, he noted that weapons coming from the western border of Ukraine will not be able to reach the AFU group on the border with Donbass, because Russian troops have blocked Kiev and a number of other cities. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky announced the blocking of "all major Ukrainian cities." The expert believes that in these conditions it is impossible to "feed" the AFU grouping on the border with the DPR and LPR with weapons.
"The APU on the border with Donbass will not be able to receive Western weapons. It is necessary to move weapons across the country, and this is impossible. More than that. Now it is not known how the AFU army is actually distributed at all. Obviously, the units that are located in western Ukraine will be supplied. It is difficult to understand where which part is located and how many of them, because management is largely lost from the very beginning," says Khramchikhin.
A similar point of view is shared by military expert, Vice-president of the Academy of Geopolitical Problems Konstantin Sokolov.
"It makes no sense to use the Black Sea to organize arms supplies to Ukraine - it's a long time, but it's impossible by air - it's under the control of the Russian Air Force. There remains land, supplies from Poland. Deliveries are possible, but probably some shipments will be secret. It will be easy enough for the Russian army to detect open ones with modern intelligence means - and destroy them from the air," Sokolov believes.
"But it's useless, because Russia controls a significant part of the territory of Ukraine. All these weapons, as soon as they are unloaded from cars or trains to warehouses, will be destroyed. In the best case, it will be stored in the Lviv region without the possibility to carry it further," he believes.
At the same time, according to the expert, the West is sending outdated weapons to Ukraine, which in principle will not help it in any way to fight Russian troops.
Irina Alshayeva