This is a recurring request: Ukraine regularly calls on Westerners to increase their financial and military aid. Traveling to Brussels on Monday, September 5, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Chmyhal thus asked the European Union for more military support, increased financial aid and stronger retaliatory measures against Russia.
The day before, during a trip to Berlin, the Ukrainian Prime Minister had called on Germany to strengthen its military support for kyiv, while recognizing the efforts already made. “The MARS II rocket launchers and the Panzerhaubitze 2000 (howitzers), supplied by Germany, performed well on the battlefield, and we hope to increase the supply of heavy weapons,” said Denys Chmygal, quoted in the statement of his services.
Germany had indicated on August 23 to deliver to Ukraine for approximately 500 million euros of new armaments. Among the deliveries are notably three Iris-T anti-aircraft defense systems, “in the fall”, according to the Ukrainian Prime Minister, “a dozen recovery tanks, 20 rocket launchers mounted on pick-ups”, as well as ” precision ammunition and anti-drone devices,” a German government spokesperson told AFP. In total, these deliveries will reach an amount of approximately 500 million euros, and a large part should be delivered in 2023.
Anti-aircraft defense systems delivered in two years
Some military equipment, American this time, should only be received in… August 2024, as noted West France. These are two of the eight Nasams air defense systems ordered from the manufacturer on August 26. On August 25, US President Joe Biden announced new military aid to Ukraine of nearly three billion dollars to demonstrate the continued support of the United States. “This will allow Ukraine to acquire air defense systems, artillery systems and ammunition (…) and radars to ensure that it can continue to defend itself in the long term”, had the US president said in a statement.
Washington will thus order for the Ukrainian forces more than 300,000 shells compatible with NATO artillery systems, radars, surveillance drones and above all, for the first time, the latest generation anti-drone defense systems. Vampire, (the acronym for Vehicle-Agnostic Modular Palletized ISR Rocket) which allow an approaching drone to be destroyed with precision-guided missiles.
This new tranche of aid is exclusively made up of armaments ordered from the American defense industry which will only reach Ukraine in several months or even two or three years, confirmed a senior Pentagon official. It is intended to strengthen Kyiv’s defense capabilities in the medium term, and not to help Ukrainian forces in their current counter-offensive efforts, as was the case with the last tranche of aid announced the week before. an amount of 775 million dollars, explained to the press the number three of the American ministry of Defense, Colin Kahl. “The United States has now released more than $13.5 billion for military aid to Ukraine since the start of Joe Biden’s term,” said Colin Kahl. However, as noted West France, Ukrainians still haven’t received a good chunk of the announced Switchblade 300 and Phoenix Ghost prowler drones. In addition, no contract award notice has yet been issued for the Switchblade 600s.
“You can’t go faster than the music”
Reached by L’Express, Michel Goya, a former colonel in the navy, recalls that Westerners had initially “provided urgently” to Ukraine the weapons they had in stock. But these stocks then became scarce. “The next phase is to order equipment, but that inevitably takes time.” “We can’t go faster than the music”, abounds Jean-Eric Branaa with L’Express. “When the stocks are empty, it takes time to replenish them, especially when it comes to missile defense or drones, and even if we are talking about a military-industrial complex like that of the United States which works good”, specifies the lecturer at the University of Paris-II-Panthéon-Assas and specialist in the United States.
This transition period, where Westerners are forced to replenish their arms stocks before then supplying part of them to Ukraine, explains why the main European countries, such as France, Germany or Italy, have not taken any new commitment in July, as reported at the beginning of August by the IfW institute, in Kiel, which follows week after week and country by country the aid provided to kyiv. “This is a drastic decrease compared to April or May,” the institute pointed out, as mentioned Le Figaro. “Financial and military aid has fallen below Ukraine’s needs,” said Christoph Trebesch, director of the institute.
In the spring, the cumulative aid (humanitarian, financial and military) from the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Poland, Spain and Italy exceeded 4 billion euros per month . Since the start of the war, 84 billion in total aid – financial, humanitarian and military – has been pledged to Ukraine to stand up to Russia, according to the institute. The United States is still by far kyiv’s main support.
Weapons and military equipment that will take months or even years to deliver do not appeal to Ukrainians. West France remember that American equipment manufacturers denounce the military bureaucracy, the rigidity of the purchasing procedures, the delays in issuing calls for tenders from the Pentagon. But for Jean-Eric Branaa, the Americans show no “reluctance” in the delivery of weapons, “without the slightest delay”, following their legal procedure: a vote of Congress then the release of funds by the chief of the State, which conducts the country’s foreign policy and is the commander-in-chief of the armies. If Jean-Eric Branaa recalls that diversions of weapons delivered to Ukraine could happen during the first two months of the conflict, “the convoys are now supervised”.
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