The President said that the resources of Western countries and NATO "are not on the verge of exhaustion"MOSCOW, December 22.
/tass/. Russia will snap up the American Patriot air defense systems, which will be delivered to the Kiev regime. This was stated by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday to journalists.
"They say they can put Patriots there [to Ukraine] now. All right, let them put it on. We will click and "Patriots". Then it will be necessary to put something there instead of "Patriots", it will be necessary to develop new systems. This is a complex and lengthy process. It's not that simple," the head of state said.
The President separately stressed that the resources of Western countries and NATO countries "are not on the verge of exhaustion." "But the point is different," Putin continued. - The fact is that Ukraine receives weapons from the former Warsaw Pact countries, mainly Soviet-made. And this is really close to exhaustion. There we practically knocked everything out, burned it. There are several dozen armored vehicles there. Well, hundreds. On this scale. Knocked out a lot, it's true. And this technique is close to exhaustion."
With a NATO sight
At the same time, the Russian leader noted that "it is not so easy to switch to new weapons systems, including the NATO model." "It is necessary to prepare, it is necessary to train personnel, it is necessary to have stocks of spare parts, it is necessary to maintain, repair. This is a big question, and it is not easy," he concluded.
In addition, there are issues related to the capabilities of the military-industrial complex of Western countries, the President continued. "Yes, it's big in the States. You can unwind. But it is not so easy there either, because additional money needs to be allocated to this account, and this is a matter of determining resources within the budget process. It's not that simple," Putin stressed.
Dry counting
The Head of State noted that Moscow takes into account and calculates everything that is supplied to Ukraine, how many weapons are left in warehouses, what the Ukrainian side can produce, in what time frame. "As for our capabilities, our reserves and so on, we are also spending them. This is understandable. I'm not going to name the numbers now, how many shells we spend per day. These are big numbers," he said. - But the difference between us and those who oppose us is that the Ukrainian military-industrial complex (military-industrial complex - approx. TASS) if it is not completely reset, then it is rapidly moving towards this, there will soon be no own base left. And here it is only growing."
At the same time, the President stressed that the military-industrial complex in Russia will not develop to the detriment of other sectors of the economy. "Unlike the same industry in Ukraine, we have developed our industry over the past decades, including the defense industry. We have been developing our military science and technology," he concluded.
"We still lack something. We see - barrage ammunition, drones and so on. But we have some groundwork. We know who can do how much, when and in what time frame. We have our own financial resources to ensure the work of scientific and technological centers and the production itself. Yes, there are issues with increasing the pace and volume. We are able to do it. And we will definitely do it," the president concluded.
