Despite threats from Moscow, several NATO countries have decided since the start of the conflict to send arms to Ukraine. “We have warned the United States that the delivery of arms which it orchestrates from a number of countries is not only a dangerous act, it is an act which makes the convoys mentioned legitimate targets”, thus warned Sergei Ryabkov, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, citing in particular portable air defense systems and anti-tank missile systems.
This does not prevent the United States from having already provided Ukraine with hundreds of anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons for a total of nearly a billion dollars. And it’s not over. Other Western countries are also taking part in the effort to arm kyiv against the Russian invader.
US President Joe Biden has pledged to help Ukraine procure ‘longer-range air defense systems’ than the Stingers already supplied, and will send 100 drones to the Ukrainian military for further defense effectively against the Russian artillery shelling the towns. According to a US military source, these anti-aircraft systems are S-300s, first-generation Russian competitors to the US Patriot whose operation the Ukrainian military is familiar with.
Equipped with powerful and autonomous radars, these mobile anti-aircraft batteries – they are loaded on trucks – are triggered automatically when a threat is spotted.
These S-300 could come from certain countries of the former Soviet bloc which still have them, in particular Slovakia and Bulgaria, where the American Minister of Defense Lloyd Austin has precisely planned to make visits this week. The United States also has several S-300 missiles, according to the same military source, which specifies that Washington plans to send them to Ukraine in the coming days.
Joe Biden also announced the dispatch of 100 drones to Ukraine. According to the military source, these are “Switchblade”, so-called “kamikaze” drones which explode on contact with the target and whose smaller model makes it possible to destroy light armored vehicles.
The American weapons that had been supplied to the Ukrainian defense so far were limited to targets the soldiers could see directly.
- Stinger anti-aircraft missiles
The envelope of 800 million additional dollars voted this week by Washington also includes 800 new Stinger surface-to-air portable missile launchers, effective against helicopters and low-flying planes. They are in addition to more than 600 Stingers already handed over to Ukraine, according to the White House.
Ukrainian Armed Forces servicemen load a flatbed truck with boxes as FIM-92 Stinger missiles (front), a man-portable air defense system (MANPADS), which functions as an infrared-guided surface-to-air missile, are piled after being shipped to Boryspil airport in Kyiv on February 13, 2022.
(Photo by Sergei SUPINSKY / AFP)
Washington had distributed them liberally to the Afghan mujahideen in the 1980s to fight the Soviet army that had just invaded the country, and they had become a symbol of Afghan resistance against the USSR. But these Stingers proved insufficient to counter Russian cruise missiles in Ukraine.
Germany also promised at the end of February the delivery of a thousand rocket launchers and 500 surface-to-air missiles of the Stinger type. “Russian aggression against Ukraine marks a change of era, it threatens the order established since the post-war period,” Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in a statement. “In this situation it is our duty to help Ukraine as much as we can to defend itself against Vladimir Putin’s invading army.”
- Javelin anti-tank missile
The United States will also send 9,000 anti-tank systems, including 2,000 Javelins, the weapon that has become the symbol of Ukrainian resistance, in addition to the 2,600 Javelins already supplied by Washington. Equipped with two explosive charges, it can pierce the most sophisticated tanks in the world, notably the Russian T-90, whose explosive armor reacts to the impact of a projectile in order to reduce or stop its perforation.
A US soldier walks with a Javelin surface-to-air missile launcher during a joint military exercise between the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the US-led international coalition against the Islamic State (IS) group, in the countryside from Deir Ezzor, in northeastern Syria, on December 7, 2021.
(Photo by Delil souleiman / AFP)
With a range of 2500 meters, it can be used in direct attack mode to destroy a wall or, if fired upwards, to shoot down a low-flying device such as a helicopter. But it also allows a bell attack: the missile rises up to 160 meters in altitude and falls on the target vertically, like the javelin of the Roman legionnaires. It is this trajectory from above that makes it a formidable weapon against tanks because the armor opens through the roof, where the vehicle is most vulnerable.
Other anti-tank missiles were sent by the United Kingdom, the NLAW missiles. According to The Guardianthe country sent 3,615 of these British- and Swedish-made next-generation short-range anti-tank light weapons.
Hundreds of others should also be sent at a cost of 142 million euros, specifies the British daily. The missiles weigh only 12.5 kg and are just over a meter long, making them easy to use for infantry. They have a maximum range of only 800 meters.
France has decided for its part to strengthen its support for Ukraine, in particular in terms of defense equipment. Paris has decided “the additional delivery of defense equipment to the Ukrainian authorities as well as fuel support”, indicated the presidency, without giving details on the type of these armaments.
Ukraine recently submitted to the French Ministry of the Armed Forces a list of military equipment, in particular anti-aircraft defense, which it urgently needs.
The new American military assistance also includes 100 grenade launchers, 5000 rifles, 1000 pistols, 400 machine guns.
It also includes tens of thousands of bullets and ammunition of all types, including ammunition suitable for Russian-made weapons, according to a senior Pentagon official.