How will the delivery of arms to Ukraine be organised?

• Vladimir Putin launched, on February 24 at dawn, the invasion of Ukraine with air strikes and penetration of ground forces, including in the direction of the capital Kiev.

• Over the weekend several governments announced the shipment of military or humanitarian equipment to Ukraine.

  For the first time in its history, the European Union has itself undertaken to deliver arms to help the country in the face of Russian attacks.

• After an informal meeting on Monday, European defense ministers will meet on Tuesday to take stock of the financing of deliveries and the routing of weapons.

Tanks, planes, assault rifles, helmets, ammunition... Less than a week after the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, some twenty European countries responded to calls from Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on arms deliveries.

On Sunday, Brussels announced that it would release 450 million euros to buy arms for the benefit of Ukraine, putting "an end to the taboo that the European Union does not supply arms to belligerents", declared

Josep Borrell, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, on Sunday.

Transport, delays, European coordination… How are grenades, tanks or combat planes sent in time of war? 

takes stock.

Europe responds present

It only took a few days for the majority of European countries to provide military support to Ukraine by announcing the shipment of arms.

And it was Germany that opened the ball on Saturday, announcing the delivery of 1,400 anti-tank rocket launchers, 500 Stinger surface-to-air missiles, nine howitzers and 14 armored vehicles.

Rifles, machine guns, anti-tank weapons, shells, helmets, ammunition... The Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Romania, Sweden, Italy, Denmark and Croatia have also promised deliveries forthcoming military equipment.

On the French side, the government confirmed this weekend the additional delivery of defense equipment to the Ukrainian authorities as well as fuel support, the presidency said on Sunday, without giving details on the type of these weapons.

For its part, the French general staff announced the imminent arrival of 4 Mirage 2000-5 fighter planes intended to "reinforce the air defense of the Baltic countries".

Poland, logistics platform

If the weapons come from national stocks, the deliveries are coordinated by the European Union.

The 450 million euros announced by Brussels will be released via the "European Peace Facility", a fund which is not part of the common EU budget but which is endowed with 5 billion euros, making it possible to "reimburse Member States which have taken from their national arms stocks and give a “European hat” to these arms deliveries”, explained a European official interviewed by AFP.

Discussing with EU Defense Ministers the situation on the ground in #Ukraine following #Russia's invasion, and how to further support Ukraine's armed forces and use our €500 million support package.#StandWithUkraine #EUDefencehttps://t.co/aqbHrw7aZX pic.twitter .com/AiMnj8Uymh

— Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) February 28, 2022

Access to this content has been blocked to respect your choice of consent

By clicking on "

", you accept the deposit of cookies by external services and will thus have access to third-party content

I ACCEPT

You can also modify your choices at any time via "choice of consent".

More information on the Cookie Management Policy page.

“Since there is a full-fledged war in Ukraine, and we want to do everything to support Ukraine, we decided to use our capabilities to supply weapons, lethal weapons […] to the Ukrainian army for a value of 450 million euros,” said Josep Borrell, also vice-president of the European Commission, on Sunday.

The latter also confirmed that these weapons were going to be delivered to Poland, which “has offered to serve as a logistical hub for the transfer of this material assistance to Ukraine”.

But easier said than done, according to General Vincent Desportes, professor of strategy at Sciences Po and HEC and former director of the School of War, with

 : "There is a gap between the decision and the arms delivery.

The question of logistics is a major problem.

A problem that European defense ministers will have to resolve on Tuesday during a meeting on the financing of arms deliveries, as well as on the delivery of the latter.

The land route, the only option

Because if deliveries can be organized by sea, land or air, Vincent Desportes believes that we can already eliminate the last option.

“Currently, delivering weapons by air is totally impossible because Russia has control of Ukrainian airspace.

Any plane entering Ukraine can be destroyed immediately,” explains the general, who adds: “It is really not certain that Westerners would take the risk, it would be an act of war, with all that that entails.

The maritime option is not necessarily better.

“Russia controls the Sea of ​​Azov, south of Ukraine, and obviously we cannot go through Russia or Crimea,” continues the general, who adds that it is also impossible to go through the Black Sea, in the southwest of Ukraine,

The land route remains.

If it appears to be the one and only solution, it poses many problems

“The weapons have to arrive in trucks, probably those of NATO, as far as Poland, to be unloaded and then loaded into Ukrainian trucks.

The Russians are following this closely and could attack these trucks on Ukrainian soil", explains the specialist, who also points out that the Polish and Ukrainian roads are, for the time being, totally congested by Ukrainian refugees who are fleeing to other places. countries, especially in Poland.

How long ?

After weapons, logistics and funding, there remains the question of deadlines.

How soon can Ukraine expect to receive this material?

The first deliveries have already taken place this weekend, several European officials said on Sunday.

But for Vincent Desportes, it will take several days, even weeks, to deliver everything.

“Shipping boxes of grenades by land is doable quickly.

But delivering planes seems much more complicated to me, ”analyzes the specialist.

World

War in Ukraine: What hides the Russian outstretched hand at talks?

World

War in Ukraine: Is Russia one step ahead thanks to its arsenal of cyber-weapons?

• European Commission

• Video

• EU

• Vladimir Poutine

• Weapons

• War in Ukraine

• Russia

• Conflict

• World

• 0 comment

• 0 share

  • Share on Messenger

  • Share on Facebook

  • Share on Twitter

  • Share on Flipboard

  • Share on Pinterest

  • Share on Linkedin

  • Send by Mail

• To safeguard

• A fault ?

• To print