Russia: NATO’s military engagement in the conflict in Ukraine is “increasing”
According to a former adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin, NATO’s arms deliveries could lead to military retribution against countries who provide them.
According to Russia, the delivery of NATO combat tanks to Ukraine is proof of “direct and escalating” US and European engagement in the conflict. One analyst even said that the countries who supply those tanks could end up becoming potential targets.
After announcing on Wednesday that they will provide Ukraine with dozens of heavy tanks to help it combat Russian soldiers, the United States and Germany made the comments.
Speaking on Thursday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, “There are consistent statements from European capitals and Washington that the sending of various weapons systems to Ukraine, including tanks, in no way signifies the involvement of these countries or the alliance in hostilities in Ukraine.
“We vehemently reject this, and in Moscow, whatever the alliance and the capitals I listed are doing is interpreted as being directly involved in the conflict. We can see that this is expanding.
In order to arm its troops with the weaponry to breach Russian defensive positions and retake Russian-occupied territory in the south and east of Ukraine, Kiev has been searching for hundreds of contemporary tanks. Primarily using T-72 tanks from the Soviet era, Ukraine and Russia have been fighting.
Russia, which started the war on February 24 of last year by invading Ukraine, has emphasized NATO’s involvement in the fight more and more. The delivery of weaponry by NATO, according to Sergey Karaganov, a former adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin, might lead to possible military retribution against the nations providing them.
In his words to Al Jazeera, “By supplying tanks, the NATO countries are becoming more overtly committed in the war and that makes them possible targets.” NATO expansion for 25 years
NATO was cited by Karaganov as having started the crisis in Ukraine.
It is more of a Russian-Western conflict than a Russian-Ukraine one. The leadership is essentially made up of marionettes, and Ukrainians are exploited as human shields.
The West has been moving forward and prepared to attack Russia, therefore Russia made the decision to publicly attack first. However, NATO’s growth has lasted 25 years. Karaganov anticipated a Russian victory despite the West’s massive supply of weapons.
“Russia will eventually dismantle Ukraine’s military, completing the nation’s demilitarization. He predicted that the neo-Nazi regime there would fall. Game-changer?
On how effective the US Abrams and German Leopard 2 tanks will be against Russian forces, experts disagree.
Oleh Zhdanov, a military analyst from Ukraine, predicted that the Leopard 2 delivery will raise the quality of our ground forces. Leopard 2 tanks have a significant advantage in firepower and durability despite being heavier than Soviet-designed tanks.
Three or five Russian tanks might be replaced by one Leopard 2, according to Zhdanov.
However, he pointed out that Russia has thousands of heavy armored vehicles, so the stated number of Western tanks is merely the bare minimum Ukraine needs to fend against a potential Moscow invasion.
The results of Kiev’s defensive operation will influence how the war develops in the future, according to Zhdanov.
The NATO tanks were met with greater skepticism by Russian military analysts, who claimed that while Abrams tanks during the Iraq War definitely outperformed earlier Soviet-built tanks, more recent Russian tanks are more competitively comparable.
They added that Soviet-era anti-tank munitions proved effective against the Leopard 2 tanks used by the Turkish army to fight the Kurds in Syria. The lower house’s defense affairs committee is led by retired general Andrei Kartapolov, who has maintained that the T-90, a modernized version of the T-72, is superior to both the Leopard 2 and the Abrams.
The newest Russian tank, the T-14 Armata, has not yet been used in a conflict and has only been produced in small quantities.
Russia has been working to get a limited number of T-14s ready for deployment in Ukraine, according to the latest intelligence update from the UK defence ministry, although it also noted that the planes had engine and technical issues. major change in policy
Russian observers remarked that it might take some time for the Western tanks to get to Ukraine and that training Ukrainians to operate and maintain them would make things more difficult.
According to a commentary by Moscow-based defense analyst Ilya Kramnik, “it presumably suggests that the Ukrainian military will probably receive a few small batches of tanks that could be incompatible with each other.”
The West has received repeated warnings from Putin, his diplomats, and his military officials that equipping Russia with long-range missiles capable of striking far inside its borders would be a red line that would result in severe reprisal.
Zhdanov said that by consenting to furnish Ukraine with tanks, the West had broken over a significant psychological barrier and may ultimately give Kiev even more lethal weapons.
The transfer of Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine “marks a dramatic change in the policies of Western partners who ceased fearing escalation and are now ready to fight Russia in the war of resources,” said Zhdanov.
“The West is compelled to open the doors to its military arsenals to Ukraine more extensively.”
“Strong retaliation”
Long-range missiles for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS, which can reach targets deep behind the front lines, as well as US F-16 fighter jets, have been requested by Ukrainian officials.
These aspirations prompted worrisome comments from Russian envoy Konstantin Gavrilov, similar to those made earlier by Putin and others.
“Moscow will have to take harsh retaliatory action,” Gavrilov warned a gathering of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. “If Washington and NATO give Kyiv weapons to strike peaceful cities deep inside Russia and try to seize the territories that constitutionally belong to Russia.”
Then, don’t claim that we didn’t warn you.
