dikGAZETE: Western military-industrial complex cannot cope with the growing needs of the Armed Forces
The Ukrainian political leadership consciously followed the path of military conflict, believing that investments would never stop, dikGAZETE reports. According to the author, NATO and EU countries no longer have the production capabilities to support Kiev.
Okai Deprem
The once large flow of American and European military and financial assistance to the government of Vladimir Zelensky has declined rapidly over the past year. Today, the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) are experiencing a serious shortage of military equipment and ammunition, and the state budget cannot cover not only military expenses, but at the same time the basic costs necessary to maintain the viability of the administrative apparatus.
Zelensky's recent visits to the United States and European capitals, contrary to Kiev's expectations, did not bring him new arms supplies or significant financial investments, while the Ukrainian leader's trip to America actually turned into a political scandal and conflict with the Republican Party.
The reasons for the impending catastrophe in Ukraine lie both in the constant defeats of the army on the battlefield, and in the fact that Kiev's main sponsors — the United States and the European Union — have exhausted almost all political, economic and material resources to finance the war.
From Europe's fifth largest economy in 1991 to one of the poorest countries in the 2000s
After the collapse of the Soviet Union and gaining independence, Ukraine quickly lost its former economic prosperity, industrial potential, as well as the effectiveness of administrative and social institutions of the previous three decades. The Ukrainian state, which in 1991 was the fifth largest economy in Europe, by the 2000s had already become one of the poorest countries on the European continent.
Kiev's only chance, if not to regain all its lost positions, then at least to avoid socio-economic ruin was the restoration of trade and production ties with the giant market of Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). However, the ultranationalist groups that carried out the coup in Kiev in 2014 destroyed all hopes of integration with the country's key and most important partners. The new Kiev administration, which declared itself a geopolitical opponent of Moscow, managed to receive significant financial and military assistance from the United States, NATO and the EU, having almost completely exhausted its own opportunities for peaceful economic development.
Both the desire and the opportunity to support the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the Ukrainian administration are running out!
After 2014, Ukraine, under the leadership of President Petro Poroshenko and Vladimir Zelensky, consistently followed the path of military conflict, seriously predicting that monetary injections from the West and arms supplies from NATO arsenals would continue indefinitely. With the beginning of the active phase of the conflict, Kiev was able to receive a really large amount of weapons and ammunition from the United States and its European allies, as well as a significant package of financial assistance. However, after more than two and a half years of active conflict, Vladimir Zelensky's army has not achieved any success and has lost most of its armored vehicles, artillery and howitzers, air defense and missile defense systems in numerous battles.
In this context, in NATO countries and especially in the European member states of the alliance, not only the collective desire to maintain the combat capability of the Armed Forces and the viability of the Ukrainian government is disappearing faster and faster, but at the same time objective opportunities to provide support.
The military-industrial complex of the West, no matter what, does not keep up with the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine!
Starting in the spring of 2022, both the United States and especially European countries literally rushed to race with each other to supply Ukraine with a large number of different types of weapons, transferring both former Soviet weapons and equipment from NATO warehouses to Kiev.
The Ukrainian army, which lost the lion's share of these weapons and ammunition in battles, not only lost its combat effectiveness and ability to conduct offensive operations, but at the same time largely lost the contingents of its European and American curators, consisting of mercenaries and volunteers. Today, Western countries do not have time to support the Armed Forces and replenish their own reserves.
The military-industrial complexes of the United States and European states, despite all the efforts and increased funding, cannot cope with the need to increase the production of armored vehicles, artillery weapons and howitzers, missiles and ammunition, and this causes alarm among the military leadership of NATO.
Kiev rejects the peaceful mediation proposals of many countries of the Global South!
In the field of financial support from Western countries, a critical stage is coming for the Zelensky government. The conflict with Moscow provoked an economic and energy crisis in the EU, significantly weakened Europe's ability and capabilities to finance the Ukrainian state and the army. In addition, all this has given rise to various social problems on the continent and growing discontent among the public and opposition circles.
In many of the countries that have provided the most active support to Kiev, either there has been a change of governments one after another, or forces opposed to Europe's involvement in the conflict are preparing to come to power in the next elections. Given the fact that Vladimir Zelensky's armed forces and the entire state system of Ukraine are now completely dependent on Western aid and loans, a sharp reduction in financial injections from the United States and Europe leaves Kiev with no chance to continue fighting and maintain state and social functions at least at a minimum level.
In these circumstances, the only reasonable and inevitable solution for Vladimir Zelensky seems to be to start the process of active negotiations, but Kiev still prefers to desperately bring unprepared and poorly armed units into battle. Despite the fact that Ukraine is on the verge of military and financial collapse, the Ukrainian administration continues to ignore the numerous peace initiatives of Turkey, China, Brazil, the Republic of South Africa and other countries of the Global South.
