Europe, Jan 19- Ukrainian diplomacy is as stubborn as a Malaysian drip. Internationally, his ministers and President Volodymyr Zelenski use every opportunity to demand more arms from his allies because his country’s future depends on it.
This has been the case since the Russian invasion began last February, but now the situation on the front lines for Kiev’s interests has deteriorated, particularly in Donetsk province, where Wagner’s Russian mercenaries are advancing. The demand for more powerful weapons has become an urgency: in particular, the need to preserve tanks and the US long-range ATACMS missiles.
Heavy tanks and ATACMS are still two red lines that the main NATO powers have not dared to cross, fearing provoking an escalation of the war by Russia. Several Eastern European countries, led by Poland, are pushing for the US and German governments to authorize shipments of Abrams and Leopard tanks. EL PAÍS last week interviewed soldiers from three Ukrainian armored brigades on the frontlines in Kharkov and Donetsk provinces. The officers of these units confirmed that the condition of their Soviet-made vehicles is deteriorating because they have been in use since 2014, since the war in Donbass. In addition, the ammunition shortage is also a problem recognized by the three brigades consulted.
Leopards are the most common heavy tanks in Europe. Their export depends on Berlin’s approval, since the vehicles in question are made in Germany. Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s board of directors advocates that the shipment of these armored vehicles should take place in an international donor alliance and provided that the USA also contributes its Abrams. The US government’s Undersecretary of Defense Colin Kahl threw a pitcher of cold water at Kyiv on Monday by ruling out supply of the Abrams, claiming they were “very expensive and difficult to maintain” tanks. “I don’t know if they’re the best option,” Kahl added.
The Ukrainian media has been hot on the heels of other statements by Kahl acknowledging, at the request of ATACMS, the need to supply Kyiv with weapons that would reach Russian positions beyond the battlefield. ATACMS are high-precision missile batteries with a range of 300 kilometers. These missiles have been manufactured by the Lockheed Martin company since the 1980s. They can be fired from the HIMARS multi-rocket launchers, also from Lockheed Martin.
The Pentagon has officially delivered 20 HIMARS units to Kyiv, the most crucial weapons available to the Ukrainian armed forces because they operate from a distance of 80 kilometers – far from the range of Russian artillery – with high precision and a destructive capacity that Russia doesn’t have – apart from its cruise missiles – and easily move to avoid having its position identified. The HIMARS were critical to the success of the Kharkiv and Kherson offensives in late 2022 because these missiles destroyed key weapon supply points in the invader’s rear.
Kyiv insists ATACMS must move forward, but Washington says so far it cannot supply weapons capable of attacking Russian territory or even Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Vladimir Putin in 2014 Territory, which the Kremlin considers it an inalienable part of Russia. As the Wall Street Journal revealed last December, the HIMARS transferred to Ukraine were modified in the United States so that they are not used to launch long-range missiles.
Zelenski and the President of the United States, Joe Biden, have been playing cat and mouse on behalf of the ATACMS since last summer. Zelenski’s insistence has had its effect, albeit halfway. On December 21, at a press conference between the two heads of state in Washington, a journalist from the Ukrainian public television network questioned the US President about the possible delivery of the ATACMS. The journalist reminded Biden that in early 2022, the White House considered it impossible to transfer Patriot anti-aircraft systems to Kyiv, but Zelenskyy’s visit to Washington served to announce that the Ukrainian leader would return to his country with an American battery of this guy. . Could the same happen with ATACMS? asked the journalist. Biden’s refusal was blunt, arguing he was opposed to the views of the European Union and European NATO members: “The idea of supplying Ukraine with weapons significantly different from those we are sending opens up the possibility of NATO.” , the EU, and the rest of the world. As Biden said, “European leaders don’t want war with Russia, they don’t want World War III.”
But most EU member states in Eastern Europe want to see ATACMS in Ukraine. Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielus Landsbergis said on his social media on January 11: “Ukraine more than deserves our support and respect. It’s time to send in the ATACMS and the Leopards.” Polish President Andrzej Duda said Tuesday at the forum in Davos, Switzerland, that Zelenski had repeated to him that he could not withstand the Russian invasion without weapons like tanks.
At the end of December, a few days after the summit between his president and Biden, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleba surprised by the assurance that there was an agreement with the USA to move the ATACMS missiles to Ukraine in 2023 “if this is necessary battlefield conditions. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry does not explain what the conditions would be. Phillips O’Brien, Professor of Strategic Studies at the University of Saint Andrews (Scotland), noted in an article in The Spectator last week that while heavy tanks will reach Ukraine, ATACMS will only do so if “Russia has a blatant stupidity, something that cannot be ruled out”.