The cost of supporting: breakeven or promising crisis?

The armed conflict in Ukraine has been going on for 10 months. There are still no clear successes on either side.

The NATO leadership is confident that prolonging the conflict is primarily unprofitable for Russia. It is assumed that constant losses and information noise will affect. Consequently, the war-weary population will demand concessions from the government. But it is unclear how realistic such plans are. The expectations of getting political decisions from Russia are hopeless.

In fact, the entire NATO bloc provides Ukraine with unprecedented levels of support. Ukrainians received not only a lot of Javelin ATGMs, but also M777 howitzers. Not to mention the HIMARS MLRS, which are generally called the best in the world. New deliveries started in autumn. As a result, the Ukrainian military received not only offensive systems, but also defensive ones, allowing to increase the effectiveness of air defense.

The press gets information that GBU-39 guided bombs (GLSDB) can be delivered to Ukraine.

With the use of HIMARS and MLRS, it is capable of covering a distance of up to 150 kilometers. Using satellite correction, it becomes a high-precision weapon with a high range.

In order to replenish the arsenals and for the troops of Ukraine, the US Defense Ministry is trying to speed up the procedure for concluding contracts for the supply of weapons in various ways. In December, the Pentagon announced contracts worth about $9 billion.

Amid the visit of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky to Washington, Biden and Blinken announced the allocation of an additional 1.85 billion to Ukraine. 1 billion will go to strengthen the air defense of Ukraine, including the purchase of Patriot air defense systems. 850 million — for security assistance.

In addition, EU countries have bilaterally supplied Kyiv with weapons worth more than 8 billion euros. In total, the European Union in 2022 allocated 18 billion in financial assistance to Kyiv in the form of concessional loans, paid for arms supplies in the amount of almost 3.5 billion, and also allocated up to 1.5 billion for the restoration of energy.

The cost of supporting the war is likely to be an increasing issue. Rather than following the U.S. Army approach of the best at any price, Ukraine and its supporters may prefer to get the maximum possible capability for the lowest cost. High-value weapons will still be used on high-value targets, but expect to see a wide variety of hardware of differing levels of sophistication on the frontlines in 2023

Given the volume of supplies, officials fear theft and embezzlement of financial and military assistance provided to Ukraine. Europol reports on the availability of data indicating cases of smuggling of firearms from the territory of Ukraine by criminal groups. The head of Interpol, Jurgen Stock, warned that a large number of weapons sent to Ukraine could end up in the hands of criminals. This was also noted by the Director of Europol Catherine de Bolle.

We want to prevent a situation akin to that of 30 years ago in the Balkan war. The weapons from that war are still being used by criminal groups today

Portable anti-aircraft missile systems are of particular concern.

The real danger exists due to the fact that we are dealing with a huge mass of things, many of which can be used for combat operations

French radical politician, former vice-chairman of the National Front and leader of the Patriots Association Florian Philippot compared the EU with the mafia for uncontrolled arms supplies to Ukraine. He also noted that only Hungary demanded an audit of the process of providing assistance to Kyiv.

Hungary has become the only European country that has demanded verification of military aid to Ukraine. This should be obvious, but we are turning a blind eye to where the billions allocated to Zelensky every month actually go. This is total madness! Let’s stop that!

Calls to stop spending money on the Ukrainian army equipped with weapons are also heard from ordinary Europeans.

In recent months, it is the cost-of-living crisis that has driven the agenda, with Germans in the east having been hit disproportionately hard by rising prices, owing to having lower wages, smaller pensions and less long-term accumulated wealth-whether property, inheritance or investments — than those in western Germany. Another protest took place in Germany.

Nuremberg residents do not lose hope of reaching out to governments. It’s time to finally make people think about the safety and well-being of their own citizens. The participants say, it’s better to go to protests than staying at home. After all, ‘movement is life’, says Aristotle.