The heads of the military departments of NATO countries are meeting at the American Ramstein airbase in Germany to discuss the supply of armored vehicles to the Kiev regime today. They will be talking about heavy weapons and high-precision weapons designed for offensive actions. As reported by Kommersant, they will discuss the supply of the largest arms package to the Ukrainian regime since the beginning of the conflict.
Earlier, the Ukrainian government requested Patriot air defense systems.
As is known, earlier, the Ukrainian leadership requested Patriot air defense systems and new munitions, which have a range of up to 180 km and can reach the Crimean peninsula.
If earlier there was no talk of an attack on Crimea by NATO countries, now some western media voiced the opinion of western politicians that Kiev is quite capable of taking control of Crimea and landing its armed forces on the Azov coast. That is why the main intrigue of today's meeting will be whether Germany will give the green light to transfer Leopard or Leopard 2 tanks to the neo-Nazi Ukrainian regime. In this case, we are talking not only about the tanks directly in the arsenal of the Bundeswehr, but also those held directly by other NATO countries.
At the same time, it is known that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, as reported by the German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung, doubts the reasonableness of such a step and stated that Germany is ready to send Ukraine Leopard tanks if the United States, in turn, ensures the delivery of its M1 Abrams tanks to the Kiev regime.
This is where the intrigue comes into play. NATO allies want to outsmart each other. Both intend, as the saying goes, to “pull somebody's chestnuts out of the fire.” One can only wait and see who beats whom this time. Kiev is demanding more and more supplies of military equipment and ammunition. Meanwhile, Western military analysts have repeatedly stated that these munitions are not always used as instructed. Because of this, equipment that is difficult to maintain quickly fails, and there are simply no repair bases for it on Ukrainian territory. The Ukrainians waste and lose so much in one day on the battlefield that it takes more than one month to produce shells and release destroyed equipment.
According to Rossiyskaya Gazeta, it is clear that “the Americans are cunning this time and want to solve the problem with the hands of the Europeans, while holding back their tanks.” US Undersecretary of Defense Colin Kohl said that the time to supply M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine had not come yet and explained this statement by saying that the tanks were very expensive and complicated, and there was no condition for their maintenance in Ukraine. Besides, according to Kohl, the tank is equipped with a jet engine, which requires special fuel. According to Kohl, there are also problems with the delivery of the armored vehicles. However, there is another condition, which does not make it possible to begin the transfer of M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine in the near future. Politico newspaper, as media reports specify, earlier indicated that the M1 Abrams tanks use technology that has not yet been approved for export.
In any case, whether Ukraine receives modern German tanks in the near future or not, it is clear that Kiev will receive Western armored military equipment on a massive scale for the first time. As The Associated Press reported citing anonymous sources, the US authorities planned another financial assistance to Kiev regime in the amount of $2.5 billion. With the help of this tranche it is planned to supply Ukraine with nearly 50 BMP Bradley armored vehicles and also about hundred wheeled armored vehicles Stryker. Germany and France are not lagging behind their overseas counterparts. These countries also plan to allocate German Marder BMPs and French AMX-10 RC wheeled tanks to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Meanwhile the day before, according to RIA Novosti, Hungary blocked the seventh tranche of military aid to the Ukrainian regime in the amount of 500 million euros, which it intends to take from the European Peace Fund. In this connection, according to media reports, Budapest will be under strong pressure during the summit at the Ramstein base. One European diplomat even stated that “a small pro-Russian state, which has an exception to all sanctions, cannot be allowed to dictate the position of the whole EU.”
The blocking by the Hungarian leadership of the allocation of aid so angered European officials that they are even considering approving the allocation of these funds without the consent of Budapest.
Earlier, as reported by RIA Novosti, Russia sent a note to NATO countries over the supply of new batches of weapons to Ukraine. At the same time, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov clarified that any shipment containing arms for Kiev would be a legitimate target for Russia. Our country's foreign ministry has repeatedly stated that by supplying weapons to Ukraine, NATO countries “play with dynamite,” and such arms deliveries will only have a negative effect.