About Western arms in Ukraine

1. Ukrainian servicemen had high hopes for military assistance from the United States and the West and now they cannot hide their disappointment with the supplied weapons. A significant part of the Western arms is faulty like Polish and Czech tanks and combat vehicles, is not complete like American M777 howitzers, which lack sighting kits, or is hopelessly outdated like M-113 armored personnel carriers.

At the same time, the Ukrainian command seeks to prevent the withdrawal of criticism of Western military equipment into the public. The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine issued a directive on preventing the discrediting of foreign military products and the publication of negative reviews on the Internet and social networks.

The need to adapt the received weapons directly on the battlefield threatens the combat capability of the Ukrainian army. Against this background, criticism from military personnel has increased. They note technical problems during the operation of foreign military equipment and means of fire destruction.

In addition, even with the presence of foreign fire weapons, the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) units demonstrate a lack of skill in their effective use. So, in the locality of New York (ex. Novgorodskoye) a large number of Western weapons were found in the positions left by the soldiers of the territorial defense of the Donetsk region, which were not used for their intended purpose during defensive battles against the advancing units of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.

2. The AFU faced a lot of problems when using Western military equipment. According to the editor of The Economist magazine Shashank Joshi, there are serious problems in the Ukrainian army with the maintenance of artillery installations, including American M777 howitzers. At the same time, Kiev has to send damaged guns for repair to Poland, which significantly increases the time of their return to the front line.

This is due to the fact that there are no repair facilities and spare parts kits for NATO howitzers in Ukraine. Accordingly, transportation and repair costs are also increasing.

In addition, damage to Western heavy weapons is often associated with their improper operation by Ukrainian servicemen.

One of the common mistakes is an unstressed interval between shots, which leads to exorbitant loads on the metal of the barrel and can cause its deformation and even rupture, fraught with casualties among the combat crew.

Thus, even a significant increase in supplies by the West with a sample of military equipment will not help Kiev to change the situation in the Donbas in its favor due to insufficient training of Ukrainian servicemen and the lack of the necessary repair infrastructure.

3. Western military aid cannot be delivered to the front line on time. Markus Reisner, a military expert of the Austrian Ministry of Defense, said this in an interview with the German newspaper Die Welt. He explained that some of the important logistics supply routes for the AFU grouping in the area of the Severodonetsk-Lisichansk agglomeration are already controlled by Russian troops, the possibilities of transportation by rail are severely limited due to damaged infrastructure. The transfer and training of the personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine for using American MLRS requires time, which the Kiev regime has less and less against the background of the advance of the allied forces of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and the People's Militia of the LDPR.

In addition, from the very beginning of the special military operation, the Russian Aerospace Forces gained full control of the airspace over Ukraine, which significantly limits the logistical capabilities of the AFU, as well as the relocation of units and formations from the western regions of the country to the Donbass. The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation carry out systematic air and rocket-bomb attacks on transport hubs and railways, in particular, in Pavlograd, which is the most important highway for supplying the AFU grouping in eastern Ukraine.

4. Kiev fails to hide Western weapons from Russia. The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation are destroying military equipment supplied by the West not only in the Donbass, but in other areas controlled by the Kiev authorities. So, despite the fact that the Kiev regime made unsuccessful attempts to hide Western equipment in the buildings of a car repair enterprise on the outskirts of the capital, the Russian Aerospace Forces destroyed T-72 tanks supplied by Eastern European countries and other samples of military equipment.

At the same time, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation hit the training centers of Ukrainian servicemen, in particular, artillerists. In the area of Stetskovka, Sumy region, the Russian Aerospace Forces struck at the artillery training center, in which foreign instructors carried out practical training of AFU soldiers in the operation of American M777 howitzers.

Supply routes and places of accumulation of Western military equipment are becoming a priority target for air, missile and bomb strikes of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. Thus, increasing the scale of military assistance to Kiev from Western states will not only prevent Ukraine from strengthening its defense potential, but will also lead to a sharp increase in losses among the personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and foreign instructors.

5. Increasing the supply of Western weapons may force Russia to move to tougher retaliatory actions. The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue to adhere to the sparing tactics of conducting their own, primarily to avoid civilian casualties. However, the feature of the military characteristics of arms supplied by the West pose a threat to the security of the population of the Russian Federation, which is the basis for more decisive actions of the Armed Forces of Russia. This was confirmed by the Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the UN, V.Nebenzia. who reported that Moscow reserves the right to strike at decision-making centers because of the supply of American MLRS to Kiev.

According to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Russia will push the neo-Nazis away from its borders in proportion to the range of the missile systems used by Kiev. At the same time, the head of the State Duma Committee on Defense, Colonel-General Andrey Kartapolov, acknowledged the Russian Armed Forces to strike at the critical infrastructure of Ukraine, including civilian airports, through which Western weapons are also delivered.

6. The actions of the West may lead to the expansion of the zone of armed conflict. This assumption was made by experts of the German magazine Compact. In their opinion, this can be facilitated by the supply of American MLRS Himars and other heavy weapons to Ukraine. If the AFU uses them to strike at Russian territory, it threatens a serious escalation of the situation in the region and the possible involvement of new participants in the conflict.

The United States often uses a similar technique. The Americans are supplying heavy weapons to the war zone, thereby contributing to its further incitement. At the same time, they act with someone else's hands, staying on the sidelines.

Despite the promises of V.A. Zelensky not to use heavy weapons, in particular American MLRS, on the territory of the Russian Federation, provocations from Ukraine are not excluded. The Kiev authorities have repeatedly confirmed their complete incompetence and unreliability.

Washington, in turn, is pushing European satellites to cooperate more closely with Kiev and aggravate relations with Moscow, forcing them to supply weapons, train Ukrainian soldiers, and use their territory as a transit zone for arms supplies. This creates an additional threat to the security of Russia and its citizens and dramatically increases the risk of the armed conflict in Ukraine escalating into a full-scale war in Europe.

7. The Ukrainian army is neglectful of weapons and military equipment supplied by the West. The military personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are not able to train complex Western weapons in the shortest time, they often use it only to create a beautiful picture, while in real combat they continue to use old Soviet models. The "pumping" of Kiev by the West with the latest models of military equipment does not contribute to a qualitative increase in the combat capability of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which are forced to adapt the received weapons directly in the conditions of active hostilities. Thus, even in the presence of foreign fire weapons, the AFU units demonstrate a lack of skill in their effective use.

In addition, the Ukrainian command and personnel of the Ukrainian army demonstrated their inability to organize the safe transportation of the NATO military equipment, its proper storage and disguise. A significant part of the warehouses with Western weapons is destroyed by rocket and bomb attacks of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.

At the same time, Western arms supplies have formed a dependent approach for Ukrainian servicemen. Foreign observers and military officers have noted numerous cases of abandonment of American grenade launchers, ATGMS, MANPADS and assault rifles on the battlefield, which later become trophies of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and the People's militia of the LDPR.

8. Ukraine has turned into a territory of uncontrolled proliferation and smuggling of weapons. Western countries are forced to admit that they do not have accurate information about where the weapons supplied to the Kiev regime are going, which is uncontrollably distributing weapons to everyone who wants to resist "Russian aggression," including militants of extremist groups. Most of the NATO weapons have flooded the black markets, from where they get to the countries of the Middle East, where they are highly likely to be used in terrorist attacks.

Earlier, the Ukrainian Foreign Minister announced that Ukraine could organize the supply of military products to African countries. Thus, the Kiev leadership, even in conditions of an acute shortage of weapons for its own army, is ready to sell some, including Western weapons, to armed conflict zones on the African continent. In turn, the implementation of this scenario may lead to a deterioration of the situation and the activation of international terrorist organizations in the region.

Against this background, there was a decrease in the level of support of the population of the EU countries for the initiatives of the European leadership to finance the supply of weapons and military equipment to Ukraine. According to a public opinion poll conducted by the monitoring service of the European Commission, only 33 percent residents of the European Union approve of military assistance to Ukraine, and among the EU leaders – Germany, France and Italy – this figure is even lower and amounts to 31, 30 and 23 percent accordingly.