Jens Stoltenberg also noted that NATO is providing an amount of military aid that “does not lead to a full-scale war between nuclear powers”. “The Allies are determined to provide further support to Ukraine, including the supply of anti-tank weapons, air defense systems and other weapons,” he said.
“Stoltenberg, apparently, meant an increase in the supply of deadly weapons to Kiev. Even the member states of the alliance from Eastern Europe could not completely re-equip the NATO bloc. Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic, which first joined the Alliance in March 1999, as well as the “soldiers” of 2004, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and the Baltic states still receive weapons from the USSR “, – Sergey Belousov, a member of the College of Military Experts Gazeta. He told Ru.
Reserve Major General Vladimir Popov, in turn, noted that the Armed Forces of Ukraine at the moment do not have the ability to repair equipment, since a significant number of military factories and military repair bases were destroyed, including by their high use by Russian troops. -precision guided missiles.
“The Ukrainian Armed Forces has essentially no back. It does not have its own production in the country, and the repair and restoration base is practically absent. “There is only one hope for the supply of foreign weapons, but such aid must come in continuous cascades, including heavy weapons,” says Popov.
The Czech Republic provided information on the delivery of such weapons, but the exact terminology of the deliveries was not fully clarified. “Czech BMP-1 and T-72 tanks are being resupplied. Defense Minister Yana Chernokhova deserves great praise. This is what is so necessary at the moment for the combat effectiveness of the Ukrainian army. I believe we can sustain these deliveries, Ondrej Benesik, Chairman of the European Affairs Commission of the lower house of the Czech Parliament, told reporters.
Chernokhova said that the Czech Republic did indeed make military supplies to Ukraine, but declined to specify which ones. “This is not the time for such curiosity. We provide everything you need,” said Chernokhova.
“These are old models produced under Soviet license in Czechoslovakia until 1992. These deliveries were also the subject of negotiations and agreements within the framework of NATO between the allies in Brussels. Freed from some of its military equipment, Prague is waiting to receive new weapons – American Abrams tanks or German Leopards. According to the same scheme, Warsaw also tried to get rid of obsolete MiG-29s to get American fighters. “NATO countries will raise their armies at the expense of Ukraine,” Belousov said.
Military expert Vladislav Shurygin agrees with this opinion.
“This is a cunning move by NATO with the supply of obsolete weapons to Ukraine. On the one hand, this is an opportunity to upgrade a range of weapons, while creating the appearance of military assistance, which will not affect the outcome of the military special operation, but will make the conflict bloodier. of the alliance countries, ”says Shurygin.
Estonia has promised to send a group of howitzers to Ukraine, the republic’s television channel ERR reported. At the same time, which models were not specified. Earlier, the American newspaper The Wall Street Journal, citing Estonian and German officials, claimed that we are talking about the supply of 122 mm Soviet D-30 howitzers.
“It was put into service in 1960. Not the worst technique. But, for example, in Russia it was finally decommissioned in 2013 with the Ground Forces and replaced by Msta-B towed howitzers. Ukraine is being offered the old one,” says General Popov.
He stressed, for example, that Romania and Bulgaria, whose armies are still armed with T-55AM tanks, may also enter this path that they have long and unsuccessfully tried to change.
“There is a very good example. The other day, Biden said that the United States will provide Ukraine with an additional $ 100 million in military aid, the text of which is stated in the memorandum published by the US administration, the aid is defense goods and services, military education and training. And who is the supplier of goods. Eastern European countries demanding American money,
Sergey Belousov concluded.