NATO MEMBERS DONATE HEAVY WEAPONS TO UKRAINE

 

Heavy weapons such as tanks and anti-aircraft batteries, although insufficient, can provoke Moskow.

       After weeks of charging for heavy weapons to face a new phase of Russian occupation of its territory, Ukraine began to receive part of what was promised by NATO, the western military alliance. Supply that is not enough to change the dynamics of force between Ukraine and Russia, but that can be understood as a provocation by the Kremlin.

       On April 8, there will be episodes that April will bring anti-aircraft distance systems, armored vehicles, artillery pieces, rocket launchers and even tanks from at least its neighbors.

       This donation, ironically, of war material from the former USSR that would have been passed on to the Warsaw Pact countries with the aim of protecting the borders of the largest country in the world, and can be considered as a legacy of the end of the Cold War.

       The prime minister of Slovakia, Eduard Heger, said that his country donated the Russian-made S-300 anti-aircraft systems to the neighboring country. “It does not mean that the Slovak Republic is taking part in the conflict,” he said. In 1989, at the breakup of the USSR, the then ally Czechoslovakia received from Moscow an S-300 regiment in its PMU export version, with four launchers. When the Czech and Slovak republics split in 1993, the latter inherited the system.

Patriot

       Obsolete model, can hit aircraft up to 90 km. The Russians operate versions that can shoot down targets up to 400 km, but in the context of the destruction of the six batteries that the Ukrainians had until the beginning of the war is better than nothing. NATO, of which Slovakia is a part, will install American Patriot systems to fill the country's lack of air defense.

       The Reuters news agency reported, without naming the source of the information, that the Czech Republic has shipped at least five T-72 tanks, five BMP-1 infantry tanks, heavy mortars and multiple rocket launchers in recent weeks to Ukraine. The country operates 30 older versions of the Soviet T-72 and had 89 in stock. Ukraine ended up being used as a dumping ground for antiquated ordnance.

       None of this will change the course of the war, of course, given the widespread destruction of armored vehicles on both sides, but it does show some commitment from the West that could generate noise in the Kremlin, which until now had more or less turned a blind eye to the most lethal small arms sent to Kiev.

       On April 7, NATO Secretary General Jeans Stoltenberg said generically that alliance members were supplying heavy material to the Ukrainians, following complaints from the Kiev government.

       The fear expressed by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleba concerns the expected Russian offensive to capture the rest of the historic Donbass region in the east of the country. Currently, the separatists who have dominated the easternmost part of the territory since 2014 have expanded their control with Russian support to almost all of Lugansk province and perhaps 60% of Donetsk. In the latter, in the Ukrainian part, is the city of Kramatorsk, target of the controversial attack on a train station on April 8.

       Since its initial offensive was faltered by planning errors and Ukrainian resistance, Moscow has altered plans and withdrew the bulk of its forces from the northeastern region of the country around Kiev. He announced that he would focus, in the new phase of the war, on control of the Donbass – in fact, the alleged motive for the occupation. (See Maffei's Blog. The War of the Great Arrows on Russia's strategy).

      Since early April, Ukraine has been asking for heavier equipment, as the battle in Donbass will require the use of mechanized forces, in addition to the predictable air support that the Russians will use – hence the need for the S-300 and shorter-range systems such as the Strela that the Czechs also donated, according to Reuters.

       Kuleba drew this when speaking to Stoltenberg and other ministers from NATO countries. The point so far is that the West has limited itself to providing effective portable anti-tank and anti-aircraft systems, which have worked very well to hold off Russian tank advances in ambush.

       But a concentrated action, with artillery barrages, air support, and intrusion of tanks and infantry must find something similar in front of it. Unless the amounts of material are much higher than the reported ones, which is possible, Ukraine will have a big problem in Donbass.

       The point is that NATO fears offending Russia, whose President Vladimir Putin has suggested he would use nuclear weapons to deal with anyone trying to get involved in the conflict.

       Therefore, the Polish suggestion to send Mig-29 fighter jets to the neighbor was vetoed by the US, the leaders of the alliance, as well as the request for the Westerners to try to implement a no-fly zone over Ukraine – which could amount to the declaration of the Third World War.

 

(Text adapted from Igor Gielow, Folha de São Paulo, available at: https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/mundo/2022/04/otan-comeca-a-doar-armas-pesadas-para -ukraine-face-the-russians.shtml).