Ukraine’s Shopping List: Are They Too Greedy?

Missiles, tanks, and planes… oh my!

How It Started
American Defense News has formerly reported on the following. Click on the links to dive deeper.

It all started with the U.S. sending over billions in dollars of the Patriot Missile to help Ukraine in their war against Russia. We sent the Patriot Missile over at the same time that President Zelensky came to petition the U.S. Congress for more. After that, the U.S. put Ukraine on notice that we would welcome Ukrainian soldiers into our country to train them on the Patriot Missile. Then, we followed through on our word and began the training.

Then came the tanks. There was a lot of dispute over sending tanks to Ukraine among defense leaders. Despite the dispute, Biden went ahead and pulled us closer to WW3 by sending the tanks.

How It’s Going
Were missiles, tanks and training enough for Ukraine! Heck no! Now the embattled country is requesting jets, submarines and long-range missiles from Western nations.

Breitbart reports:
Talk of NATO nations supplying long-range missiles, warships, submarines, and fighter jets is evident, with Ukrainian government figures seemingly tasked with acquiring new equipment wasting absolutely no time to push new ideas immediately after the dam burst on tank supply. The shift from tank talk to fighter jets was, perhaps inevitably, almost instantaneous after the United States and Germany dropped their previous objections to sending offensive armour to Ukraine this week. Yet the conversation has, at the hands of Ukrainian politicians and diplomats trying to talk Western powers into sending more equipment, taken another leap forward.

Discussions to get long-range missiles to Ukraine are apparently well underway, with reports describing the talks as “fast-track”. Advisor to Ukrainian President Zelensky, Mykhailo Podolyak, who has been a cheerleader for western warplanes is involved in the missile talks and said he was trying to explain to allies that getting the advanced weaponry would “reduce fatalities… reduce security threats to the European continent, this will keep the war localised”. The requests for ever more sophisticated weapons of war beg serious questions for Western allies about how involved, exactly, they are willing to get in Russia’s war against Ukraine.

A typical submarine crew would embody decades of experience and training to effectively use one of the most sophisticated weapons systems in the world, and even for experienced crews in competent navies the complexity of submarine operations has meant a steady drumbeat of subs grounded, damaged, and lost — with deadly consequences — for as long as they’ve been in service.

Underlining the problem, German state politician Martin Habersaat quipped back at Melnyk’s request for one of Germany’s six submarines, asking how many sailors in Ukraine’s navy knew how to operate submarines at all.

Now Receiving Tanks, Ukraine Advances Discussions to Jets, Submarines, Long-Range Missiles https://t.co/YwWlSy6Vt5

— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) January 29, 2023

Erin Thielman