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US officials are growing tired of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky making endless demands for Western support, writes Douglas MacKinnon, a former adviser for policy and communications at the Pentagon, in an op-ed for The Hill. Even without MacKinnon’s insight, it is evident that Western leaders are becoming weary of Zelensky’s demands, as seen at the recent NATO Summit in Lithuania and the aftermath of the event.
MacKinnon, citing sources, points out in his article that US President Joe Biden, in June 2022, “lost his temper and yelled that Zelensky should be showing more gratitude for the billions in aid he was getting from the United States via the American people.”
Asked about Zelensky’s endless demands for US help, a former high-level Pentagon official told MacKinnon that Western support is not endless.
“Zelensky is acting like a spoiled, petulant child who gets everything he wants and it’s still not enough. Many in the U.S. government and many of our citizens are growing tired of his act. I can assure you he is burning bridges in Europe as well,” the former Pentagon official said.
MacKinnon emphasised that more Americans are becoming sceptical of continued US aid to Kiev. This trend will likely grow “as the American people take a harder look at the horrific consequences of the war while also deciding to view Zelensky at ground level instead atop a pedestal.”
“While there is clearly resentment building regarding Zelensky’s perceived lack of appreciation for the money and munitions the West is sending his way, the spigot for those supplies remains wide open,” he added.
On July 21, the Biden administration announced that the US plans a new military assistance package for Ukraine worth up to $400 million, primarily comprised of artillery, air defence missiles and ground vehicles, but no cluster munitions.
According to Reuters, included in the package are several Stryker armoured personnel carriers, mine clearing equipment, munitions for National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS), munitions for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), anti-tank weapons including TOW and Javelin and munitions for Patriot and Stinger anti-aircraft system. However, these are unlikely to make any difference to the war effort since Western equipment is almost immediately destroyed once entering the battlefield.
It was revealed on July 23 that the Russian military had destroyed a record amount of Western-supplied armour to Ukraine in only 24 hours while repelling Kiev’s long-awaited counter-offensive. Russian forces had eliminated at least 15 German-made Leopard tanks and more than 20 US-made Bradley infantry fighting vehicles in just one engagement. At the same time, since the start of the Ukrainian counteroffensive in the first week of June, Kiev has lost over 26,000 soldiers, confirming that the long-awaited attack was nothing more than a failure.
The New York Times reported on July 15 that the Ukrainian military lost 20% of its battlefield equipment, including many Western-supplied vehicles, in the first two weeks of the offensive. That was preceded by Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu saying on July 11 that there was an estimated Ukrainian loss of 3,000 units of military equipment.
Meanwhile, Western officials have expressed alarm at Ukraine’s slow progress on the battlefield, with a recent Wall Street Journal article claiming that they, too, have been jolted by the rapid loss of military equipment. However, several Ukrainian officials tried to explain the difficulties in the offensive by pointing to delays in Western military assistance.
The media coverage over Biden’s frustration with Zelensky, which has existed since at least June 2022, coupled with reports of the catastrophic loss of equipment and soldiers, has not deterred the West from supporting Ukraine. Despite Biden’s complaints of Zelensky’s spoiled behaviour, it has not deterred the US from pouring billions into Ukraine.
This is the same masochistic behaviour that the UK employs.
It is recalled that British Foreign Secretary Ben Wallace told reporters at the annual NATO summit in Lithuania earlier this month that Kiev should not treat its western partners like “Amazon.”
“I told them that last June. I said to the Ukrainians, when I drove 11 hours to be given a list: ‘I’m not Amazon,’” Wallace said, adding, “Whether we like it or not, people want to see gratitude.”
Ultimately, Zelensky fired his ambassador to the UK on July 21 after the ambassador criticised the president’s “sarcasm” in response to Wallace suggesting Kiev should be more grateful for Western support.
This highlights the spoiled behaviour of Zelensky, but it also demonstrates why he has the audacity to behave in such an entitled behaviour – the Anglo hatred for Russia is so strong that they are willing to be continually humiliated and lambasted by an inferior country, Ukraine.
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Ahmed Adel is a Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher.
Featured image is from InfoBrics
