Ukrainian officials walked away from Tuesday’s meeting of the so-called Ukraine Defense Contact Group (aka the Ramstein Format) with something to brag about, announcing plans to take delivery of deadly new weapons from their Western ‘partners’.
“Productive meeting. Support continues. Important statements and commitments were made. They will continue further. This year we will get weapons we don’t have yet which will help us strike logistical hubs,” Ukrainian Defense Ministry spokesman Illarion Pavlyuk told reporters after Tuesday’s meeting.
“There will be large aid packages from several countries this year,” Pavlyuk said, adding that issues related to the increased production of weapons and ammunition were also discussed, and that Ukraine received the “full understanding of partners” on its needs for long-range strike weapons.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov confirmed earlier in the day that the Ramstein talks included lobbying to increase the volume of military assistance Ukraine is getting amid critical shell shortages.
Tuesday’s talks come amid flagging US commitments to the Ukrainian proxy war amid a battle in Congress over a $61 billion aid package, and attempts by Washington to pressure its European NATO allies to ramp up their own commitments amid flagging US support. “Even though we aren’t able to provide our security assistance right now, our partners are continuing to do that,” Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said ahead of the Ramstein Format meeting, which was the 18th gathering to date by 50+ countries (including all 31 NATO members) who have pledged support for Kiev since the format was created in April of 2022.
Zelensky’s Wunderwaffe?
“There is a list of specific weapons which Kiev is demanding and begging the collective West for but which haven’t reached the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” Alexander Mikhailov, the head of the Bureau of Military-Political Analysis, a Russian security affairs-oriented think tank, told Sputnik.
These include the F-16 fighter jet, which a handful of NATO countries have promised Ukraine, but which officials in Kiev recently admitted aren’t anywhere close to arriving.
“I strongly doubt that Ukraine’s military will actually receive F-16s in the required numbers; hypothetically they could get a few for some show flights and for the use of long-range aircraft missiles. But by and large, this, again, will not have a serious effect, and would be enough for just several days of aerial battles,” Mikhailov said.
“As for other types of weapons, Ukraine is constantly asking for long-range missiles. But there are questions related to the ‘red lines’ around the issue drawn by Russia and the West,” Mikhailov said, referring to long-standing warnings by Moscow to NATO that pumping Kiev up with more and more advanced weapons threatens to escalate the conflict.
Therefore, the observer believes, the discussion about fantastical new ‘weapons which Ukraine doesn’t have yet’ likely revolves around aircraft and long-range strike missiles, even if not in the volumes Kiev is looking for.
“Here we can use the example of the ATACMS missile, which the Ukrainians have been asking for for two years now. They got their wish, several missiles arrived, several of them were shot down by our air defenses, now what? Did this somehow manage to change the course of hostilities? No. Did it manage to break Russia’s defensive lines and help Ukraine’s counteroffensive succeed? No,” Mikhailov said.
The same applies to all the other ‘superweapons’ Ukraine has received from the West over the past two years, the observer said, including the much-hyped Leopard, Abrams and Challenger tanks, which Kiev received several dozen of but which have had almost no visible impact on the battlefield.
“So this whole story is not turning out in Ukraine's favor. That they’re engaged in fantasizing there, let them fantasize…In practice, we have seen something completely different. In general, it’s important to talk not about these various ‘ingenious’ kinds of ‘wunderwaffe’, but about the fact that the West continues to supply small arms, anti-tank systems, drones, armored vehicles, automotive equipment, and so on; that is, types of weapons actually used in the Donbass every day, and which bring the greatest problems for our forces,” Mikhailov summed up.