Page 48 - bne_November 2023_20231105

48 I Eastern Europe bne November 2023
had a major impact and have inflicted devastating losses on the Russian forces.
But the armoured systems and tanks
are susceptible to artillery and mines, which Russia has used liberally in its defensive lines and which have proved to be a fearsome challenge as Ukraine presses up against the extensive
Russian defensive networks in the counter-offensive. Less than 5% of tanks destroyed since the start of the war had been taken out by other tanks, Ukrainian officials said in a Wall Street Journal report, with the rest falling to mines, artillery, anti-tank missiles and drones. The relative superiority of Western tanks vs the Russian Soviet-era vintage tanks counts for little in this type of fighting.
Taras Chmut, a military analyst who's the head of the Come Back Alive Foundation, which has raised money to purchase and provide arms and equipment to Ukraine, told Business Insider that "a lot of Western armour doesn't work here because it had been created not for an all-out war but for conflicts of low or medium intensity."
"If you throw it into a mass offensive, it just doesn't perform," he said.
Chmut went on to say Ukraine's Western allies should instead turn their attention to delivering simpler and cheaper systems, but in larger quantities, something Ukraine has repeatedly requested, the newspaper reported.
Nato on weapons supplies
Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg arrived in Kyiv a few days earlier to meet Zelenskiy to talk about arms production. Stoltenberg has previously admitted that many Nato allies have significantly run down their stocks of weapons in order to support Ukraine and need to increase production if
that support is to continue. “This was the right thing to do, but now we need to ramp up production, both to meet Ukraine’s needs and to ensure our own deterrence in events,” he said.
For example, the West has used up most of its stock of 155mm artillery shells and part of the motivation to supply Ukraine with the controversial cluster munitions is that they can be fired
from the 155mm calibre guns and the West still has a large stockpile of these munitions.
Zelenskiy said he agreed with US President Joe Biden during his
recent visit to Washington on “the establishment of a new industrial ecosystem that will strengthen
both Ukraine and all the partners.” Zelenskiy described it as “one of the key outcomes” of his negotiations with Biden in Washington.
Zelenskiy’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, also said that there will soon be meetings with representatives from the US “to determine the road map of co-operation with the partners about
localization of production, specifically in Ukraine,” Al Jazeera reported.
During the forum, Zelenskiy announced the creation of the Defence Industries Alliance and added that 13 defence companies have already signed the corresponding declaration. Ukraine plans to establish a special fund to finance the construction, which will
be paid into through dividends from state defence resources and profits from the sale of confiscated Russian assets, Zelenskiy said.
Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said talks on setting up production have been going on since last autumn. “At first, we were talking about repairs within Ukraine, and then about joint production. And now this topic is prevalent everywhere,” said Kuleba. “Just as we have benefited from Western weapons, Western arms manufacturers also gain unique advantages in the market to improve their models and create even more powerful weapons.”
Ukraine’s recently appointed Defence Minister, Rustem Umerov, said the country must do everything possible to produce all the necessary military services at home. The other priority
is the development of defence technologies. Ukraine is also investing heavily into drone innovations, which have been used to devastating effect on the battlefield.
“Ukraine is in such a phase of the defence marathon when it is very important, critical to go forward without retreating. Results from the frontline are needed daily," Zelenskiy told executives at the forum. "We are interested in localising production of equipment needed for our defence and each of those advanced defence systems which are used by our soldiers, giving Ukraine the best results at the front today.”
Zelenskiy said that air defence and de-mining were his immediate priorities, followed by boosting domestic production of missiles, drones and artillery ammunition.
Over 250 international defence companies were in Kyiv to talk about setting up shop in Ukraine, as the government seeks to break the deadlock on the battlefield, where little progress has been made in months.
www.bne.eu