Conflict Russia Ukraine: Song of Victory | The role of US and European media in the kyiv counterattack

From Paris

More than a week The European press has been celebrating what many media outlets hope is “Ukraine’s victory” over Russian troops who invaded the country on February 24. The headlines and stories are more exciting than the prevailing wisdom in Washington. However, the influence of America and Europe in this war was inversely proportional to the victories of the old continent.

Military assistance

A short but descriptive history of German tanks and modern weapons accurately draws the line between these two axes in the Western sector: Washington has so far provided a total of $14.5 billion in direct military aid, of which $12.5 billion comes from U.S. military stocks. In addition to supplies, the U.S. trained soldiers and shared its surveillance equipment with Ukraine, particularly images from U.S. surveillance satellites.

According to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, a full material support allowed kyiv Recover 6,000 square kilometers of occupied territory around the cities of Kherson and Kharkiv. In the face of this, despite repeated requests from President Volodymyr Zelensky, Germany refuses to supply Panther 2 tanks, despite offering military assistance to supply heavy weapons Kraus-Mafi was produced by Wegman, a constructor.

Many European military experts think so With those tanks, kyiv will seal its victory and, consequently, the recovery of the occupied territories. Mobile howitzers or artillery such as French CESAr, German PzH2000, ATF Dingo or Morter armored vehicles (all German) have already been delivered to Ukraine. But not Leopard 2. Partners alternate responsibility with each other. German chancellor Olaf Scholes, argued that Germany “would not supply arms without prior coordination with the Atlantic Alliance” (NATO). Washington diplomats say “it’s up to each state to provide any kind of weapons to Ukraine, not what NATO says.”

European territory, American arms

The conflict in Ukraine has become a war on European soil, its strongest and most decisive battles being fought with American weapons. The goals are the same: Defeat Russian President Vladimir Putin militarily or create a tie to force him to negotiate. However, the difference between what Europe and America put on the table is stark.

On November 8, during a visit to Kyiv by US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, President Volodímir Zelenski realized that “those territories cannot be restored without the help of the United States”. Washington’s superiority is great. 70 percent of Ukraine’s military aid comes from the United States. Comparatively, Ukraine’s military budget before the Russian invasion was five billion dollars a year, while the support given to Kyiv by Joe Biden already exceeded that budget by nearly three times.

In dry terms, the amount of weapons delivered by the US in the last six months is impressive: More than 40,000 man-portable missiles, including 8,500 Javelins, 126 M777 155-millimeter cannons, 1,400 Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, 8 Nasams surface-to-air missile batteries, 200 M113 anti-armor missiles and M14 rocket range missiles. Over 80 kilometers, 700 suicide drones, 700 switchblade and 700 Phoenix Coast, 20 Mi-17 helicopters. Ukraine has acquired 800,000 155-millimeter howitzers, 144,000 105-millimeter shells, 85,000 120-millimeter shells, and 1,000 M982 Excaliburs.

Kasthuri also plays

In turn, the company Elon Musk, Starlink said it has provided 20,000 essential satellite terminals to guarantee communications when signals don’t work. Quantity and quality. The list is endless, and apparently, these weapons are decisive in complicating Moscow’s intentions.

Included in this collection of “analog” weapons is a US-imposed digital device placed in Ukraine’s service. US military spy planes cross the border between Ukraine and Romania every day to retrieve so-called “magnetic electronic data” that Russian troops are increasingly releasing.

On the other hand, there are satellite images of all conflict zones, and this allows Ukrainians to accurately scan the situation in the regions, as well as receive detailed information about the movements of Russian units.

In its edition of last September 13, the newspaper The New York Times He assured that successful counter-offensives were launched in Kherson and then in Khargiv (South and North). They were “prepared with military personnel from the Pentagon during a series of exercises.” Colin Cole, “We helped them, and then the Ukrainians decided,” admitted the Pentagon’s undersecretary for policy.

Partners

In order of importance, the second military support corresponds to Poland and the third to Great Britain. For example, France ranks 11th on that list of arms suppliers (Source Kiel Institute for the World Economy, Germany).

Aid from the rest of the Western alliance was light years away from matching the US presence: among the most important weapons transferred by other countries, France provided 50 Gebhardt anti-aircraft tanks, 18 Caesar guns and thousands of howitzers. Germany delivered 10 PzH2000 vehicles and sold 100 to Ukraine. Poland gave away 18 units of the so-called crap and sold another 54. Great Britain supplied 36 105-millimeter howitzer launchers, among other weapons.

It is joined by other countries (Poland, Great Britain, Australia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Netherlands, Germany, France, Lithuania) with T-72 tanks, AGM-84 Harpoon anti-ship missiles, Javelin anti-tank missiles, NLAW, A74. (25 thousand), Panzerfaust missiles, Milan anti-tank missiles, Brimstone missiles, AGM-88 HARM (high-speed anti-radiation) anti-radar missiles, Turkish Bayraktar TB2 drone.

Allies on both sides have been reluctant to provide more advanced weapons to avoid an acrimony with Moscow. They help Ukraine with well-calculated drops based on their respective interests and what they are looking for. Today, more than any other option, the practice is to create a kind of balance, a dead-end plan, and this situation forces Putin and Zelensky to negotiate. Therefore, the type of weapons provided is controlled by that target.. Pope Francis said in his own way: “Dialogue with Putin” is necessary “even if a country is an aggressor”, otherwise “the only reasonable door to peace will be closed”.

These polyphonic quantities of weapons upset the course of a war in which Vladimir Putin seemed to have all the cards in his hand: military superiority over Ukraine and European dependence on Russian hydrocarbons. A counteroffensive began in eastern Ukraine on September 6.

The media in Europe present this as the key to a global victory over Russia. At this point, this seems like a very urgent argument. The war, on one side and the other, is far from lost or won.

A possible massacre in the Ukrainian city of Izium could further increase Washington’s covert military presence in the war. The discovery of more than 400 graves with obvious signs of torture in a Ukrainian city that was liberated a few days ago will surely prompt the White House to release more weapons to Kyiv: the conflict will continue and, in the end, the Europeans will be mere rhetorical observers. and faced real conflict with Moscow and Washington. Europe is a stony guest and America is the determined military master.

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