When the Soviet Union collapsed, European nations grabbed the “peace dividend,” drastically shrinking their defense budgets, their armies and their arsenals.
With the rise of al-Qaida nearly a decade later, terrorism became the target, requiring different military investments and lighter, more expeditionary forces. Even NATO’s long engagement in Afghanistan bore little resemblance to a land war in Europe, heavy on artillery and tanks, that nearly all defense ministries thought would never recur.
In the summer in the Donbas region, the Ukrainians were firing 6,000 to 7,000 artillery rounds each day, a senior NATO official said. The Russians were firing 40,000 to 50,000 rounds per day.So the West is scrambling to find increasingly scarce Soviet-era equipment and ammunition that Ukraine can use now, including S-300 air defense missiles, T-72 tanks and especially Soviet-caliber artillery shells.
The Russians, too, are having resupply problems of their own. They are now using fewer artillery rounds, but they have a lot of them, even if some are old and less reliable. Facing a similar scramble, Moscow is also trying to ramp up military production and is reportedly seeking to buy missiles from North Korea and more cheap drones from Iran.
The French, for instance, have provided some advanced weapons and created a 200 million-euro fund for Ukraine to buy arms made in France. But France has already given at least 18 modern Caesar howitzers to Ukraine — about 20% of all of its existing artillery — and is reluctant to provide more. NATO’s secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg, has advised the alliance — including, pointedly, Germany — that NATO guidelines requiring members to keep stockpiles should not be a pretext to limit arms exports to Ukraine. But it is also true that Germany and France, like the United States, want to calibrate the weapons Ukraine gets, to prevent escalation and direct attacks on Russia.
Australia Latest News, Australia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
NATO vows to aid Ukraine 'for as long as it takes'NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg says the military organization stands ready to help Ukraine defend itself against Russia “for as long as it takes.” nato ukraine world kprc2 click2houston
Read more »
Natural gas production could skyrocket as Houston’s LNG industry growsThe Ukraine war set off global shortages of natural gas and a subsequent race along the...
Read more »
Merion Mercy junior fled Ukraine, then became a PIAA tennis championSofiia Berestetska and her mother left Ukraine following Russia's invasion and made their way to Philly.
Read more »
Ukraine war over when 'each road' free, Polish PM says after missile dustupMateusz Morawiecki reiterated Poland's support for Kyiv weeks after NATO said Ukraine likely accidentally launched the missile that killed two Polish villagers.
Read more »