Due to the domestic political situation in the United States, the future fate of Ukraine largely depends on European assistance. But for the Europeans themselves, Ukraine’s victory is also critically important. This opinion was expressed by Deputy Director of the Center for European Reforms, former British diplomat Ian Bond on the pages of an authoritative publication Time.
In his opinion, US Republicans are “ready to throw Ukraine under the bus,” so Europeans now face a “harsh choice” – to intensify their own efforts and help Ukraine drive out the aggressor, or to agree to Russia’s victory. For example, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban advocates an immediate stop in arms supplies to Ukraine so that it makes concessions to Vladimir Putin. But such a position will not be able to gather consensus in the EU, the analyst is convinced.
“Negotiations with Putin always end in tears. Even though the Minsk agreements of 2014 and 2015 gave Putin de facto control over Crimea and parts of eastern Ukraine, seven years later he returned for more. Putin has an obsessive faith that he has long repeated in in his interview with Tucker Carlson on February 8, that Ukraine is an integral part of Russia,” Bond writes in the pages of Time.
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The author of the publication notes that the costs of the Europeans for the decisive victory of the Ukrainians will ultimately be much less than the Russian conquest of Ukraine, because then it will be the turn of other countries that were once part of the Russian Empire. At the same time, the analyst names 4 things that Europe must do for the sake of Ukrainian victory.
“First, stop saying that Europe will support Ukraine “as long as it takes,” and start saying that it will support Ukraine “as long as it takes.” This is not a war that Europe can afford to lose, and its story is for domestic and the external audience should reflect this,” emphasized Ian Bond.
Secondly, he calls for taking anti-Russian sanctions more seriously so that Russia cannot receive Western components, technologies and machines for military production and cannot receive excess profits from oil exports to finance the war.
Thirdly, the analyst called for “emptying the arsenals of Europe” and transferring to Ukraine weapons that are gathering dust in warehouses in countries that are now not in danger.
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“There is no point in stockpiling weapons and ammunition for a rainy day. Bad weather has already hit Ukraine. For example, NATO countries have more than 2,000 Leopard 2 tanks, but only about 130 were transferred to Ukraine. About 14 of the more than 200 British Challenger 2 tanks were sent in a similar way.” “,” he notes and calls for, simultaneously with the supply of old stocks, a sharp increase in the production of new weapons.
Fourth, Ian Bond called for the immediate use of $300 billion in frozen Russian assets to economically support Ukraine.
Problems with Western support for Ukraine
As UNIAN wrote, the United States stopped providing military and financial assistance to Ukraine due to internal political strife. The last package of American weapons was allocated in December. Now supplies of weapons from the United States will come only from what was ordered from industry and paid for earlier, but has not yet been manufactured.
At the same time, the EU is failing to fulfill its own commitment to transfer 1 million artillery shells to Ukraine within a year.
Against this background, it was reported that Iran had transferred 400 ballistic missiles of its own production to Russia. Previously, the DPRK also transferred its missiles to the Russians. Italian military expert Thomas Thaner emotionally called the West a “bad ally” for Ukraine, compared to how Iran and North Korea are helping the aggressor.
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2024-02-21 19:17:00
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