The armed conflict in Ukraine has been going on for 10 months. There are still no clear successes on either side.
The NATO leadership is confident that prolonging the conflict is primarily unprofitable for Russia. It is assumed that constant losses and information noise will affect. Consequently, the war-weary population will demand concessions from the government. But it is unclear how realistic such plans are. The expectations of getting political decisions from Russia are hopeless.
In fact, the entire NATO bloc provides Ukraine with unprecedented levels of support. Ukrainians received not only a lot of Javelin ATGMs, but also M777 howitzers. Not to mention the HIMARS MLRS, which are generally called the best in the world. New deliveries started in autumn. As a result, the Ukrainian military received not only offensive systems, but also defensive ones, allowing to increase the effectiveness of air defense.
The press gets information that GBU-39 guided bombs (GLSDB) can be delivered to Ukraine.
With the use of HIMARS and MLRS, it is capable of covering a distance of up to 150 kilometers. Using satellite correction, it becomes a high-precision weapon with a high range.
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In order to replenish the arsenals and for the troops of Ukraine, the US Defense Ministry is trying to speed up the procedure for concluding contracts for the supply of weapons in various ways. In December, the Pentagon announced contracts worth about $9 billion.
Amid the visit of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky to Washington, Biden and Blinken announced the allocation of an additional 1.85 billion to Ukraine. 1 billion will go to strengthen the air defense of Ukraine, including the purchase of Patriot air defense systems. 850 million -- for security assistance.
In addition, EU countries have bilaterally supplied Kyiv with weapons worth more than 8 billion euros. In total, the European Union in 2022 allocated 18 billion in financial assistance to Kyiv in the form of concessional loans, paid for arms supplies in the amount of almost 3.5 billion, and also allocated up to 1.5 billion for the restoration of energy.
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The cost of supporting the war is likely to be an increasing issue. Rather than following the U.S. Army approach of the best at any price, Ukraine and its supporters may prefer to get the maximum possible capability for the lowest cost. High-value weapons will still be used on high-value targets, but expect to see a wide variety of hardware of differing levels of sophistication on the frontlines in 2023.
Given the volume of supplies, officials fear theft and embezzlement of financial and military assistance provided to Ukraine. Europol reports on the availability of data indicating cases of smuggling of firearms from the territory of Ukraine by criminal groups. The head of Interpol, Jurgen Stock, warned that a large number of weapons sent to Ukraine could end up in the hands of criminals. This was also noted by the Director of Europol Catherine de Bolle.
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