Rita Ruduša
Photo: Ieva Leiniša/LETA
Rita Ruduša, “Latvijas Avīze”, JSC “Latvijas Mediji”
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During the year, the view of many Europeans on the military field has changed significantly and the war in Ukraine has played an important role in the everyday life of people and countries.
Recently, in the British publication “The Daily Telegraph”, I discovered a valuable and handy catalog of weapons supplied to Ukraine – “Ukraine’s Weapons: An Essential Guide”. The animated catalog allows you to explore howitzers, missile systems, drones – when they were produced, how far they fly, where they were previously used. My interest in weapons had long been noticed by the Facebook algorithms and started insisting on offering various Internet resources about and about weapons, but this is the first one that focuses on Ukraine and not on theoretical war games.
The fact that a mass media is investing resources in creating a thorough multimedia catalog of weapons is symptomatic. During the year, we – and by “we” I mean the West, of which Latvia is also a part – have survived various stages of understanding, involvement, hope and despair, starting from paralyzing shock and 24/7 connected news feeds, continuing with energetic activity, providing aid shipments and car convoys, and ending with refugee children’s theater performances and candle workshops at rural markets.
At the moment, the routine of war has set in, no matter how terrible this wording sounds. With different levels of intensity, we live the everyday life of the war, follow and participate (more in Poland and the Baltics, less from the front in countries geographically further away with different historical experiences), and at the moment we clearly understand that precisely from weapons and from how far a missile can fly, depends on the outcome of the war.
The fact that the catalog was created directly in the British press is not a surprise. Although Great Britain has not had direct contact with Russian aggression and has even offered comfortable conditions to Russian oligarchs for a long time, the war in Ukraine has struck a sensitive nerve. At the beginning of the Second World War, when the Blitz took place – the 56-day bombing of London by the Nazi German Air Force – Britain was as lonely as a finger.
No allies, alone against a violent and targeted enemy, just like post-invasion Ukraine. Perhaps that is why the now former Prime Minister Boris Johnson was one of the first European heads of state to fly to Kyiv. While his counterpart Emmanuel Macron continued to tell Vladimir Putin on the phone that war is not good, Johnson arrived with support and the promise of arms. Let’s not forget that Latvia supplied weapons even before the start of the invasion and it was our “Stinger” missiles that helped protect Kyiv.
During the year, the number of weapon suppliers has increased, Ramstein’s consultation framework has strengthened and the arsenal of weapons has also grown significantly – at first, the Ukrainians faced the massive attack with the mobile anti-tank missile “Javelin”, but now cargo trains with “Leopard” tanks are already rolling through Poland in the direction of Ukraine. The West did not believe in the strength and ability of the Ukrainians to resist such a massive defeat and at first pragmatically did not hurry with supplies, but now, presumably, no one doubts anymore that the Armed Forces of Ukraine are one of the most powerful armies in the world and can win. Not only can, but also will win, but with one condition – the catalog of weapons must be much more thorough.
It is known what units are missing, General Valery Zaluzhny has named them, but they are coming slowly. “Why don’t you give Ukraine all the weapons it needs to win?” US President Joe Biden was asked by a Ukrainian journalist when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the US. Indeed, why not?
The end of war now means first and foremost weapons. We must, of course, also think about legal proceedings against war criminals, about the return of kidnapped Ukrainian children home, about trauma treatment, civil reintegration of the de-occupied territories, about the restoration of infrastructure and the status of a candidate country for the European Union. But now we need weapons.
So I’ll keep looking at the weapon catalog in hopes of seeing long range missiles there. And when the war is won, I’ll be more than happy to forget An Essential Weapons Guide and let Facebook’s algorithms take me in other directions, say green energy or nursery pages.
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