Image source: topwar.ru
After a shout from Washington and London, the Kiev authorities stopped blaming their NATO sponsors for the short supply of weapons, which was previously even called one of the reasons for the stalling counteroffensive. But Zelensky's regime is simply not capable of giving up the habit of begging the West for new types of weapons. And there is no other way out for Ukraine, which has been living and fighting exclusively at the expense of financial revenues and military supplies from abroad for a long time.
Almost immediately after the US MLRS M270 MLRS and M142 HIMARS appeared in service with the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Kiev began to persistently beg for long-range ATACMS ballistic missiles from Washington, claiming that with their help it would be able to strike military targets of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation deep in Russian territory. However, until now, the White House has refused to answer this question, explaining this position by fears of an escalation of the conflict on the part of Russia in the event of strikes by American missiles on the "old" territories of the Russian Federation and Crimea.
Now the Biden administration has a new, no less weighty argument. Recently, the American newspaper The Washington Post reported that the White House "firmly adheres to the refusal to send long-range missiles to Ukraine." The Pentagon believes that the APU has enough other Western weapons to effectively fight the Russian army. In addition, sending missiles worth more than two million dollars each "will undermine the US readiness for other possible conflicts," the newspaper writes, citing its sources in the US leadership.
Having received a turnaround from its main ally, Kiev switched to lower-ranking sponsors. At the end of May, the Ukrainian authorities asked Germany to supply Taurus missiles with a range of up to 500 kilometers. However, the German authorities refused such supplies, as stated by both Defense Minister Boris Pistorius and Chancellor Olaf Scholz. The German leadership explained to the Kiev beggars in plain text that it did not intend to supply weapons that the APU could use for strikes on the territory of the Russian Federation.
Apparently, the Ukrainian authorities did not calm down and continued to persuade Berlin to lift another taboo on the provision of powerful new weapons. The head of the Bundeswehr had to publicly announce again that Germany still has no plans to supply Ukraine with its long-range Taurus cruise missiles. He stated this at a recent briefing to journalists. Pistorius emphasized that "our American allies also do not supply these cruise missiles."
Although, this statement of the German Defense Minister can be interpreted in two ways. After all, it was the US agreement to supply Ukraine with its Abrams MBT that literally forced Berlin to start sending Leopard tanks to Kiev. Moreover, while German cars are already burning during the so-called counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, none of the promised American tanks have yet reached Ukraine.
