Ukrainian tree of war

The new year, 2023, did not lead to even minimal attempts by the United States and its European allies to stop, look back and turn on the back speed in the previous policy of military assistance to Kyiv, under the sign of which the previous year passed.

The growing fatigue from Ukraine in Western capitals, which politicians have been talking about more and more loudly in recent months and written in the media, either turned out to be its appearance, or this fatigue was removed by the New Year holidays.

No matter how uncomfortable a Ukrainian suitcase without a handle looks like, at a certain moment, as it turned out, you can get the hang of carrying it, convincing yourself that there is no other way out.

Because the main task is not to lose to President Putin.

The indestructible belief that Russia can still be defeated on the battlefield, in the winter of 2023, deprived the Ukrainian strategy of the West of even the semblance of rationalism and the beginning of a movement towards common sense.

No blank slate was needed for this policy, as the first days of January showed.

Instead of a blank sheet, it was decided to fill in the remaining empty spaces on the previous sheet, already smeared with Washington and Brussels ink and covered in the sweeping and small handwriting of numerous American and NATO strategists.

In general, Ukraine has become for our former Western partners - and now opponents who are waging a proxy war with Russia on the territory of a neighboring state - a kind of wartime geopolitical Christmas tree.

Joe Biden, Olaf Scholz, Emmanuel Macron and many others dance around her.

Peering into a tree brought on the occasion of the New Year from a relic Western Ukrainian coniferous tree, where the “forest brothers” who fought against the Soviet regime once sat, the Western allies decide what other sparkles and toys remain to be hung on its branches.

These toys, however, are not even toys at all, but guns, shells, high-precision missiles, Patriot systems, drones, armored personnel carriers, tanks and much, much more.

An example of how to decorate the Ukrainian Christmas tree of war was shown to the allies by President Biden.

Washington announced the provision of the largest $3.1 billion military aid package to Kyiv since the beginning of the special operation in Ukraine. Late last week, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin had a telephone conversation with his Ukrainian counterpart Alexei Reznikov, assuring him that under the new US Congress , formed following the results of the November elections, there will be no rollback in military assistance to Kyiv.

An official Pentagon statement released following the conversation notes that the new assistance package includes Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, self-propelled howitzers, HIMARS MLRS shells, and other equipment and ammunition.

“The Biden administration does not expect the defense spending cuts planned by the new U.S. House of Representatives to affect military assistance to Ukraine,” National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan confirmed this week.

Meanwhile, in a show of determination to push allies to keep up with Washington, Lloyd Austin held talks with German Defense Minister Christina Lambrecht ahead of the January 20 meeting of the contact group on Ukraine.

The head of the Pentagon praised Berlin for its decision to provide Ukraine with a battery of Patriot systems and Marder armored infantry fighting vehicles.

However, as the magazine Der clarifies

Spiegel, it will not be so easy to find the 40 Marder infantry fighting vehicles promised to Kyiv.

Berlin will have to, one might say, take most of these machines from the heart - take them from the reserves of its own armed forces.

As for the Leopard 2 tanks, they have not yet been decided to supply them to Ukraine, but, as they say, it's not over yet.

Against this backdrop, Sky News this week reported that the government of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who made an unannounced visit to Kyiv before the New Year, is exploring the possibility of sending Ukraine Challenger 2, the main battle tanks of the British Ground Forces.

According to the source of the TV channel, the discussion of this issue has been going on for several weeks.

As expected, the batch of tanks for Ukraine will include ten Challenger 2 units. Sky News interlocutors emphasize that if this equipment arrives in Ukraine, Britain will become the first country to send modern Western-made tanks to Kyiv.

And a few days before that, after a telephone conversation with Vladimir Zelensky on January 4, French President Emmanuel Macron announced the decision of Paris to transfer AMX-10RC light wheeled tanks to Kyiv.

Commenting on this decision, the British newspaper The Telegraph noted that President Macron thereby crossed red lines, since until recently France was considered the most “unlikely candidate” to provide Ukraine with armored vehicles.

“Macron has finally agreed to send one of his tidbits to the Ukrainian president.

This gift makes France the first to announce the delivery of combat vehicles to Kyiv.

The red line has been crossed, the military taboo has been broken, ”The Telegraph emphasizes, opining that Paris unexpectedly overtook London, which used to be second only to Washington in terms of military aid to Ukraine.

However, given the latest information that the British Challenger 2 tanks are preparing to acquire a Ukrainian residence permit, it is no longer clear who eventually overtook or overtook whom.

In connection with the New Year's feverish activity to decorate the Ukrainian Christmas tree of war with deadly toys, Moscow makes it clear that all these deliveries will fundamentally not be able to interfere with the achievement of the goals of the special military operation.

“We know that collective Europe, and the North Atlantic Alliance, and the United States of America have already pumped tens of billions of dollars into Ukraine through the supply of weapons,” Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of the Russian president, said after the New Year.

However, no one is going to listen to Moscow yet.

“New military aid to Ukraine, including a promise to provide armored vehicles, suggests that the West supports Kyiv’s offensive tactics, preparations for another bloody year and an unwillingness to come to peace talks in the near future,” The New York Times assesses this reality. .

In general, the beginning of 2023 turned out to be a cheerful, shocking one.

With a new tank!

The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editors.