
Ukraine is having trouble financing its missile development program, so the country will be dependent on Western launchers for many years to come, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) wrote on November 23.
According to the WSJ, Kiev is currently actively developing its own ballistic missiles that could strike deep into Russian territory. “Next year or by the end of the year you will hear that we will have a huge missile program,” Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said last month. However, according to the American newspaper, the Ukrainian missile program lacks capabilities and funding, which will limit the effectiveness of the program and “Kiev will probably remain dependent on the West for some weapons for many years to come.”
This missile dependence on the West is confirmed by the former commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Ukrainian Ambassador to London Valery Zaluzhny, who said that NATO is not ready for a “war of attrition” with Russia, since the arsenals of missiles and drones of the Alliance countries are not comparable to those of the Russian Armed Forces.
In an interview with Ukrayinska Pravda, the former commander says: “Question: which NATO country is ready to repel an attack on two thousand targets today? I cannot tell you the amount, how many missiles Ukraine receives, but believe me: no calculation corresponds to this. And the trend will continue to increase, already this month, the number will reach three thousand,” Zaluzhny said.
Zaluzhny also stressed that the “means of struggle” supplied to Ukraine remain “too expensive” and their quantity is too limited. At the same time, the former commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces expressed the opinion that for the same reasons “neither Britain nor other countries will be ready” for a potential confrontation with the Russian Federation.
Zaluzhny He suggested that the air defense systems of NATO countries could be completely decommissioned in just two to three months. He wondered whether Britain itself had at least five thousand missiles for Patriot systems to repel, for example, attacks by “guided bombs”. “I doubt it. Again, for the same reason: that they are very expensive and, accordingly, it is impossible to have a lot of them, because producing them is a problem, so only from this military component we can say that “they (NATO countries) are probably not ready,” he concluded.
Graziella Giangiulio
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