The United States may run out of stocks of weapons due to its constant supplies to Ukraine. In this regard, Western countries faced a harsh choice: to increase supplies to Ukraine or save the limited opportunities that they may need for their own defense.
Hal Brands, a professor at the Johns Hopkins Institute and a specialist in international politics, writes about this for Bloomberg.
In his opinion, while the war is approaching a critical stage, when the Russians are preparing to strengthen in the east of Ukraine, the "arsenal of democracy is depleting." America follows the "arsenal of democracy" strategy in Ukraine: it avoids direct interference, working with allies and partners to provide Ukraine with money and weapons.
According to him, this could lead to a fatal shortage of Ukrainian forces in this conflict and expose the U.S. weakness, which could manifest itself in the next battle of the great powers.
At the same time, it is noted that American top officials expected Russia to quickly capture most of the country, so the U.S. will support a boiling, sluggish Ukrainian rebellion. However, the successful resistance of Ukraine led to ongoing intensive hostilities with a colossal consumption of ammunition and intensive depletion of key military facilities.
This presents Western countries with a harsh choice: increase supplies to Ukraine or save the limited opportunities that they may need for their own defense.
The author doubts that the U.S. is able to quickly increase the production of the weapons necessary for Kyiv. Especially in the context of the transition of the war to the east of Ukraine, where the superiority of Russia in aviation and armored vehicles will be crucial.
Kyiv will need much more Western support to push back against Russian forces gathering in the east, where relatively open terrain is less favorable for defense.
It is noted that the U.S. provided a third of its total supply of Javelin anti-tank missiles. It cannot easily supply more without leaving its own arsenals severely depleted - and it can take months or years to significantly increase production.
It is also stated that the U.S. cannot quickly increase the production of Stinger missiles for Ukraine, because the labor required for this is no longer available.
As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and U.S. President Joe Biden discussed a defense support package during a telephone conversation and agreed to tighten sanctions against Russia.
Earlier, the U.S. promised Kyiv 10 anti-tank systems for each Russian tank in Ukraine.
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