Reporter Peng Qiaozhen / full report
The Russo-Ukrainian war has been fought for 9 months and it seems it has no intention of stopping, even the NATO countries that have provided military assistance to Ukraine from the beginning are showing signs of tiredness. According to the “New York Times” quoting Western officials, the Ukrainian military is currently using a staggering number of artillery shells, and 20 NATO members say they have run out of resources they can provide.
NATO military aid Ukraine a large number of weapons and equipment. (Photo/Associated Press)
According to the report, after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, European countries cut defense budgets, military size and arsenals, because no one expected that one day there would be another war in Europe. And how terrible is the consumption of ammunition in Ukraine? The report compares Afghanistan, where NATO forces fire around 300 rounds a day, with Ukraine, which fires thousands of rounds a day and needs assistance with air defense. Camille Grande, a former assistant to the NATO secretary general and now a defense expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said: “A day in Ukraine is a month or more in Afghanistan.”
Western countries are now trying various channels to get more artillery weapons, including buying from countries like South Korea. NATO has even discussed investing in old factories in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Bulgaria to produce artillery shells from 152 mm and 122 mm of the Soviet Standard Caliber to be supplied to Ukraine.
So far, NATO countries have supplied Ukraine with weapons and equipment worth about 40 billion US dollars (about NT$1.28 billion), which is almost equivalent to France’s annual defense budget. A NATO official said some of the smaller members had run out of what they could offer, with 20 of the alliance’s 30 members saying they were “very tired”. If the war continues in the future, I am afraid that even Western countries will not be able to bear it.
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