Despite his generous donation to her, the West refrains from giving them to Ukraine

LONDON

 - The West continues its generous gift to Ukraine militarily and economically, through non-stop financial support plans, and weapons flowing in thousands from different countries, foremost of which is the United States of America.

Nevertheless, the Ukrainian government still insists that the West can do more by providing it with new types of weapons and missiles that will turn the equation on the ground, especially in the battles taking place in the East.

The Ukrainian enthusiasm for acquiring these weapons was met with a kind of Western reservation, fearing that a wrong message would reach Moscow, pushing it to further escalate and considering that NATO has become a party to the war, turning into an open war with catastrophic consequences.

These Western fears are what prompted the major countries, including the United States and Germany, to implicitly agree not to provide the Ukrainian army with heavy offensive weapons, which may be interpreted in Moscow as a declaration of war by NATO countries. What are these weapons?

Veto on planes

All Ukrainian attempts to persuade the United States to provide it with warplanes failed, and Ukraine was wishing to obtain the MiGs that the United States has stored in a military base in Germany, but the Biden administration decided to reverse this decision after military and security reports described the plan. as "high risk".

A plan to deliver F-16s to the Ukrainian army was also abandoned because the Ukrainian pilots had neither experience nor experience in dealing with American fighters, and all their training was about Soviet-made aircraft.

Among the weapons that the US administration has refrained from delivering to the Ukrainian army is the Mi-17 helicopter, which was previously on the list of weapons that Washington will send to Kyiv.

This helicopter was Soviet-made before it was developed by Russia, and Ukrainian pilots have experience in handling it.

However, the Western assessment is that the Ukrainian pilots go to neighboring countries in order to obtain these helicopters and then fly them towards the battlefield, Russia may see them as entering the countries in NATO to war.

Ukraine receives a shipment of Lithuanian military aid at an airport outside Kyiv (Reuters)

Ukrainian Wishes

Western reluctance, led in particular by Germany, Berlin calls for careful handling of arming the Ukrainian army in order not to provoke Russia.

However, Kiev is still insisting on a list of weapons, which it believes will turn the scales of the game, foremost of which are long-range anti-ship missiles, in order to break the noose on the coastal city of Odessa and force the Russian warships to move away further.

Britain is one of the candidate countries to meet this request, but so far it has not been responded to, despite the passage of several weeks since Prime Minister Boris Johnson's visit to Kyiv, and there has been news of London's intention to supply Ukraine with anti-ship missiles.

As for the second requirement of the Ukrainian army, it is to obtain unmanned aircraft capable of flying for a long distance and carrying out bombing operations and then returning to the bases, because until now Kyiv has obtained the suicide drones, meaning that they are used in a single operation.

As for the third requirement, it is to obtain drones capable of flying behind the lines of the Russian army, especially in the east, which Washington has rejected so far, lest these planes fall into the hands of the Russian army, and with them it would obtain an important intelligence treasure for understanding the technology of manufacturing these planes.

Missiles are coming

Thousands of "Stinger" and "Javelin" missiles, both for air defense, arrived in the Ukrainian army, and indeed they proved very effective during the war.

However, the current debate is about the possibility of providing Ukraine with long-range missiles, and it is related to the missile system "MLRS" (MLRS) and its modified version "HIMARS" (HIMARS), which are manufactured by the arms manufacturer "Lockheed" Martin".

According to CNN, the US administration has already agreed to send the missile system with a range of hundreds of kilometers (about 300 km), and the purpose of this approval is to change the balance of power in the battles in the east.

As for the US Forbes website, it revealed that the goal of this decision is not only to bomb Russian artillery, but also to prevent Russian artillery from bombarding Ukrainian artillery, and this will be achieved with this long-range system.

gun chaos

In a lengthy report by the British newspaper Express, and another by the American newspaper, the Washington Post, a discussion revolves around the danger of weapons destined for Ukraine breaking out and the possibility of them falling into the hands of arms-trafficking gangs or terrorist groups.

For example, the shoulder-mounted "Stinger" missiles are capable of shooting down a commercial airliner, and this is why more than one security and military expert calls for the need to be careful to know where these weapons are heading and how they are used.

According to the British newspaper's report, Ukraine was "a transit station for the arms trade during the Soviet and post-Soviet era."

According to the research group "Small Arms Survey" (SAS), between 2013 and 2014, about 300,000 light weapons were stolen or lost, and only 4,000 were found.