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Western heavy weapons will not help Kiev

April 28, 2022 07:38 GMT+7

The 19FortyFive portal recently published an article with disappointing content for the Armed Forces of Ukraine: “Western tanks, missiles and artillery will not save Ukraine”.

The above comments are from Daniel L. Davis, a former US Army lieutenant colonel, veteran of Iraq and other military campaigns, now a senior fellow at the Defense Priorities Center for Strategic Analysis.

Accordingly, the author believes that the victory of the Armed Forces of Ukraine will be broken when it is only necessary to quickly supply Kiev with a large amount of heavy weapons. Here are some reasons why this option might not work.

Western heavy weapons will not help Kiev
Western heavy weapons will not help Kiev. (Photo: RIA)

Firstly, the situation in front of the fact that all the Armed Forces of Ukraine took part in wars throughout the country.

Second, for maximum efficiency, the equipment being delivered should be compatible with each other, have similar maintenance requirements, and be simple to operate for minimal training time. Ideally this would mean that Ukraine should get weapons that it has been using for decades.

“But the attempt to ‘match’ American artillery, German tanks and British air defense systems with Soviet weapons systems will be problematic. If only for the maintenance, repair and operation of each type of equipment would require specially trained mechanics. No logistical system can fully account for such a discrepancy,” Davis wrote.

Third, and most importantly, Ukraine will have to train its soldiers from scratch. As noted above, the entire Ukrainian army is currently engaged in wars across the country. Kiev does not have the manpower to remove these soldiers from the front lines and send them out for training.

Meanwhile, Mr. Davis said that combat training at each level is mandatory. For example: tank crew, platoon, company,… all this will take a very long time.

For the eight years since 2014, most of the training of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has taken place in the static conditions of World War I-style trench warfare. Very few soldiers have experience in commanding mobile infantry and tank units.

According to the expert of 19FortyFive, if this scenario is cast aside, Ukraine will run the risk of acting like a “scalar”.

“Many people will want to send more tanks and artillery to the front as soon as they are ready to increase the combat capability of the army right now. But it doesn’t work that way. It’s not just about tanks or rocket launchers, it’s about the presence of well-trained, disciplined troops who know what they’re doing, working like a professionally trained team because common goal,” said Mr. Davis.

The only possible option this expert sees for Ukraine is to create combat units from scratch, without contact with the front. But for this, it will most likely take 9 months to 1 year and it is not likely that the Armed Forces of Ukraine can hold out for that long.

Earlier, on April 18, the Russian Defense Ministry released a document that said Ukraine has lost more than 23,367 soldiers since Moscow launched a military operation at the end of February. Russia called this an “irreparable loss. position” of Ukrainian forces.

This number is many times higher than the figures announced by the Ukrainian side. In an interview on April 15, President Volodymyr Zelensky said that about 3,000 Ukrainian soldiers were killed and about 10,000 wounded in the Russian military operation.

According to Russian Defense Ministry documents, an estimated 6,824 mercenaries from 63 countries around the world have come to Ukraine to fight with the Ukrainian army against Russia’s special military operation.

Peace (translation summary)

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