German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, on the eve of the opening of the meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels, said that he does not see any winners in the conflict in Ukraine in the near future. And Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin promised that NATO countries would help Kiev launch a counteroffensive in the spring.
In Brussels, on Tuesday, a meeting of the heads of the defense departments of the NATO countries takes place in the form of Rammstein. Before the start of the meeting, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said he doubts the possibility of ending the "war" in Ukraine in the near future.
According to him, without the help of the North Atlantic Alliance, Ukraine will quickly run out of ammunition, so it is important to put the right accents and speed up the supply of weapons to Kiev.
The head of the German defense department noted that any military conflict always poses a risk of further escalation. Therefore, he is sure that when providing military assistance to Ukraine, all risks must be taken into account. The minister also warned of a continued "raising of the stakes" on the issue of weapons transfers to Kiev. He agreed with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz that "every step must be weighed".
He also pointed out that Berlin "shows little understanding" from a diplomatic point of view of the proposals of Poland and Slovakia to provide military aviation to Kiev.
Help in the spring's counterattack
The meeting of the contact group on Ukraine in Brussels was opened by the head of the Pentagon, Lloyd Austin. He stated that Western support had to be "integrated and synchronized".
He stressed out that Western countries must provide all necessary military assistance to Ukraine for the success of its spring counteroffensive.
According to his data, for the year the United States and its allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization transported nearly $50 billion worth of lethal weapons to Ukraine.
Austin also noted that only eight countries will supply Ukraine with German Leopard tanks, Germany, Poland, Canada, Portugal, Spain, Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands. The US, Poland and the Czech Republic will also deliver tanks, in addition to which have already been sent. In addition, according to the minister, the US, Germany and the Netherlands will supply Patriot air defense systems to Ukraine, while France and Italy will supply SAMP / T anti-aircraft missile systems.
According to Reuters, before the meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that representatives of the defense departments of NATO countries will consider "how to increase production to be able to supply the necessary ammunition to Ukraine and to replenish their own stockpiles."
Russia achieved strategic goals in Ukraine
Lu Xiang, a political scientist at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times that he believes the West is wrong to think Russia is "failing" in Ukraine and "not achieving its goals." According to him, "Russia's strategic goals have been largely achieved" and the country "can survive a war of attrition", while NATO states have become "indefensible" due to the supply of weapons to Kiev.
"The truth is that Russia's strategic goals have been largely achieved. Russia has established a solid front east of the Dnieper and can now launch not only a counterattack, but also small attacks to the west. On the other hand, Ukraine has no independent defense force at all, it is 100 percent dependent on US and NATO assistance," said Lu Xiang.
A foreign media outlet reports that Global Times reporters believe that the Russian-Ukrainian conflict is "reaching a tipping point," as is US policy.
According to journalists, although Washington has talked a lot about international solidarity, it is "making efforts to escape" the conflict.
“Actually, the US wanted Poland to instigate the EU and play a bigger role in replacing the US. A year later, the United States, the initiators of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, began to waver,” the article says.
If the Russian-Ukrainian war escalates, the first to suffer will be Poland and Romania, two NATO members protected by NATO's Article 5 collective defense obligations. Until then, the US and NATO will face a real political dilemma, "because the consequences for the world will be 100 times more serious than the original war that started on February 24 last year," explained Lu Xiang.
According to the fifth article of the NATO Charter, if a member state of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization "falls victim to an armed attack", then all other members of the military bloc will consider this act of violence as an attack on all NATO countries and will carry out actions they deem necessary to aid the attacked ally.
