Residents of the suburbs of Lviv (Ukraine) are being trained in the use of weapons, March 7, 2022 BERNAT ARMANGE / AP
Ten days after the start of the war in Ukraine, according to evidence and official statements, arms shipments to the regime of Volodymyr Zelensky, announced by many European countries in mid-January, are beginning to arrive and arrive as intended. convergent. The details of what equipment is sent and how governments accept it politically vary from country to country.
The United States has so far claimed the most military support for Ukraine. Total security assistance totaled $1 billion (920 million euros) in one year, according to the State Department. Aid that has further increased since the outbreak of hostilities on 24 February. US President Joe Biden approved the $350 million package on February 26, and more than two-thirds of the equipment was delivered within five days. According to the New York Times, Washington has delivered more than 17,000 weapons, including Javelin anti-tank missiles and Stinger anti-aircraft missiles.
The United States also appears ready to find ways to provide Ukraine with the planes requested by Mr. Zelensky. The idea advocated in Congress was to transfer Russian-made aircraft (such as MIG or Sukhoi) to the Ukrainian Air Force, which are equipped with countries in Eastern Europe, such as Poland, Bulgaria or Slovakia. Devices on which the Ukrainian army is already trained.
It remains to be seen how these transfers can be organized. On Sunday, March 6, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said he was working with the Poles on this issue: “We strongly support them in providing planes to the Ukrainians. But in order to avoid “a lack of Poland’s own security,” the US will consider providing F-16s to Warsaw in return. The devices have already been promised to Taiwan, according to the New York Times.
Tough game for Berlin
In Berlin, the game is more subtle. Nine days after the German government gave the go-ahead for the first round of arms deliveries to Ukraine (500 Stinger-type anti-aircraft missile systems, 1,400 anti-tank rocket launchers and nine howitzers), the German government says it is ready to supply more equipment. “Everything that is possible is currently being studied,” Defense Secretary Christine Lambrecht said on Monday, March 7.
The German government, which has been heavily criticized for refusing to supply weapons to Kiev for several weeks before finally deciding to do so two days after the Russian offensive began, does not want to be accused of a lack of solidarity again. At the same time, the recent alarm cry of the chief of staff of the army, who declared on the very first day of the conflict that the Bundeswehr was “more or less exhausted”, obliges him to a well-known reservation: while the war is raging two hours from Berlin, the Germans may not allow an under-equipped army to part with some of its equipment.
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