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After a year of incessant propaganda about the Kiev regime’s supposed military successes, NATO leadership seems to have started accepting the reality and finally relaying it to the public. On February 13, the aggressive US-led alliance’s Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg held a briefing and warned that the political West is now essentially in an arms race with Russia, with the task of getting as much equipment and ammunition as possible to supply the Neo-Nazi junta forces. He further stated that a “race of logistics” was also underway, with Russia “currently having the upper hand”. Stoltenberg thinks that Russia already launched its next large-scale offensive.
“The war in Ukraine is consuming an enormous amount of munitions and depleting allied stockpiles. The current rate of Ukraine’s ammunition expenditure is many times higher than our current rate of production. This puts our defense industries under strain,” he said. “It is clear that we are in a race of logistics. Key capabilities like ammunition, fuel and spare parts must reach Ukraine before Russia can seize the initiative on the battlefield… …If Putin wins in Ukraine the message to him and other authoritarian regimes is force is rewarded. That would make the world more dangerous and all of us more vulnerable.”
The admission that the belligerent alliance, by far the largest in the world, spending approximately $1.2 trillion a year is being outproduced by Russia with a military budget nearly 20 times smaller might seem quite shocking to many, but is hardly surprising to most military experts. NATO has been outsourcing ammunition production for years, with much of its supply chain depending on other countries, including China, which is also being targeted under the aggressive alliance’s new doctrine. And while Stoltenberg called for NATO member states to ramp up production, this might prove problematic, to say the least, as the level of manufacturing in Western countries has fallen dramatically as labor costs increased over the last several decades.
As for Stoltenberg’s claim that if Russia wins this would somehow be “dangerous for the world” as it would show that “force is rewarded” then the political West should look no further, as the US-led NATO has been conducting a comprehensive aggression on the world since its very inception. The belligerent alliance’s most powerful members all have a history of brutal colonialism and have waged wars on all continents while trying to preserve their colonial empires. And to this day, this format has survived through the establishment of numerous clients, including the Kiev regime, which is “shedding blood for a NATO mission”, according to the Neo-Nazi junta’s own admission.
Stoltenberg lamented that “NATO has a challenge”, stating: “Yes we have a problem… …but we have a strategy to tackle that.” He also admitted that despite the political West’s tens of billions in weapons, ammunition and other supplies, the Kiev regime’s logistics issues are “acute”, as it is still completely outgunned by Russia, with some estimates going as far as 10:1 in Moscow’s favor. The Neo-Nazi junta is estimated to be spending more than 5,000 artillery shells each day, while the Russian military is firing up to 6 times more. Once again, it should be noted that this is quite different from last year when the mainstream propaganda machine presented Russia as supposedly losing to the Kiev regime forces.
The NATO chief also stated that “what Russia lacks in quality, they try to compensate in quantity.” Such statements are certainly laughable to anyone familiar with the situation on the ground. With the latest reports on the casualties on both sides showing that the Kiev regime is suffering losses orders of magnitude greater than Russia, it’s quite clear which side lacks in quality and tries to compensate for this in quantity. Stoltenberg also admitted that NATO is now faced with a severe problem, as current waiting times for large-caliber ammunition have grown from 12 to 28 months. This is causing logistics issues not just for the Neo-Nazi junta, but also for NATO members themselves.
With such issues affecting the political West, the Kiev regime’s prospects are rather grim. Volodymyr Zelensky’s recent “fighter jets tour” ended with more promises of arms deliveries, but not much more as major NATO members are now trying to “toss the hot potato” to each other. And while Stoltenberg’s claim that Russia’s large-scale offensive has already started is questionable, most military experts expect it will start soon, which will certainly further exacerbate the Neo-Nazi junta’s already precarious position. However, they have only themselves to blame, as Moscow has been trying to find a peaceful resolution to the Ukrainian conflict for approximately a decade. The political West is now admitting that the negotiations with Russia were only an attempt to stall while preparing the Kiev regime for war. It seems they should have prepared much better.
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Drago Bosnic is an independent geopolitical and military analyst.
Featured image is from Stop the War Coalition
