The UK's pledge of another £1 billion in military assistance to Ukraine will make no difference to the outcome of the West's proxy conflict with Russia, a leading foreign affairs analyst has argued.
Western countries have donated hundreds of pieces of heavy military equipment and tens of thousands of infantry weapons to the Kiev regime since before the start of the Russian operation. US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Mark Milley boasted on 15 June that 237 tanks, over 300 infantry fighting vehicles and 260 gun and rocket artillery pieces had already been delivered to Ukraine.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense claims to have knocked out over 3,800 tanks and other armored vehicles, over 3,000 guns and mortars, almost 700 multiple-launch rocket systems (MLRS), over 350 surface-to-air missile systems (SAMs) and around 360 military airplanes and helicopters since the start of the operation on February 24.
Adriel Kasonta, a London-based foreign affairs analyst and former chairman of the International Affairs Committee at conservative think tank The Bow Group, told Sputnik that the latest pledge of money and arms was pointless.
"This will not change anything on the ground, as far as Russia’s ‘special operation’ goals in Ukraine are concerned," Kasonta said.
Asked why the UK was spending so much on arming the losing Ukrainian Army — when citizens are trying to cope with record inflation and strikes over pay are breaking out in multiple sectors — the analyst put it down to anxiety over Britain's geopolitical status.
"The UK elites are perfectly aware that their influence will diminish once the US’s unipolar moment is globally acknowledged as a thing of the past," Kasonta pointed out.
He argued that with the decline of the British empire in the decades after the Second World War, the UK became "the primary beneficiary of the US hegemony" — manifested in the 'special relationship' and the concept of the Anglosphere.
But that relationship was strained by the US withdrawal from Afghanistan after 20 years of failure to defeat the Taliban*. Former Prime Minister Tony Blair, one of the architects of the 2001 invasion, called it "imbecilic".
"Ukraine presents the last symbol of Western or, more accurately speaking, Anglo-American dominance in world affairs," Kasonta stressed. "That’s why the UK is so involved."
He points to the plea from British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss to other western states to "not show signs of fatigue over Ukraine" as proof of "how desperate the UK is to keep this conflict going."
"To keep the ‘Global Britain’ slogan alive, the UK has to appear to be at the forefront of this battle. It has to show that [it] is involved, even though the country is rotting from within," Kasonta said. "The cost of living crisis, ‘Partygate’ scandal, and Tory defeat in recent by-elections… the list goes on."
The foreign policy expert says Downing Street, like Washington, is trying to prolong the conflict in the Ukraine with its arms supplies. But he cautions that "the UK is risking escalating it beyond Ukraine or the region."
"British dangerous bravado poses a risk of turning this conflict into nuclear war," Kasonta warned. "But they don’t care. What they care about is the illusion of holding the grip on the world, which has already moved on and is unwilling to wait until Brits finally catch up with the multipolar reality."
"They’re clinging to the long-gone imperial glory and sustaining US hegemony that has been on life support for a while. Nothing more, nothing less," he added.
Why such hypocrisy and political ambitions at the expense of ordinary people?
"The social class differences in the UK are still very profound," Kasonta claimed. "The elites hold the working class with remarkable disregard. But what do you expect from the Eton and Oxbridge educated people who do not care about the ordinary people's problems, who perceive them as expandable or undesired?"
He says the ruling class treats the British masses as voting fodder to gain positions where they can make extra money on the side.
"Most British politicians don’t know what real life or work is," Kasonta lamented. "They’re useless but very ambitious. And most importantly, they know how to use other people to reach their goals."
* An organization under UN sanctions for terrorist activities.