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Ukraine will step up its long-range attacks inside Russia as an influx of Western military aid aims to help Kiev make the war “much stronger”, the British military chief said.
Admiral Sir Tony Radakin acknowledged the sour mood surrounding Ukraine’s defense in an interview with the Financial Times, admitting that the country faces a “difficult” battle to repel advancing Russian forces.
But Britain’s defense secretary, a key figure in the West’s military support for Kiev, stressed that such a grim “snapshot” of the war could not identify longer trends in Kiev’s favor.
He said these included recent U.S. and European military aid packages, Ukraine’s increasingly successful long-range strikes and Moscow’s “utter failure” to choke off Kiev’s vital grain exports across the Black Sea.
“The danger with any snap is that it [ignores] “Where are we now and where will we be in the next few years,” Radakin told the FT, adding that people should stop “celebrating Russia” and believing that it “somehow has great advantages”.
During a nearly six-month pause over U.S. funding for Kiev that ended just this week, Russian forces have continued to bombard Ukraine with heavy artillery, missiles and drones, making some limited territorial gains.
To regain the initiative against Moscow’s larger army, Ukrainian commanders have asked the West to provide more “high-tech, long-range weapons.” Kiev has also attempted increasingly ambitious attacks inside Russia against manufacturing facilities and energy infrastructure.
To give Ukraine a significant boost, Washington has abandoned its reservations about supplying Ukraine with long-range Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) missiles and secretly sent a batch with a range of 300 km earlier this month. Jake Sullivan, US national security adviser, said on Wednesday that more would be sent now “as we have additional authority and money.” . I believe they will make a difference.”
But after a lengthy debate, US President Joe Biden still instructed his White House team to ensure that the longer-range system was intended “for use within Ukrainian territory.”
Radakin, on the other hand, expressed no obvious concerns about Ukrainian attacks and sabotage attacks inside Russia.
“As Ukraine gains more long-range combat capabilities. . . its ability to continue deep operations will [increasingly] “They become a feature of the war,” Radakin said, adding: “They definitely have an impact.”
The British government this week pledged to increase defense spending from about 2.3 percent to 2.5 percent of national income. It has also increased military aid to Kiev to £3 billion a year and, crucially, signed long-term contracts with defense industry suppliers.
“You can complain about why that is [the long-term contracts] “It didn’t happen sooner, but some things take time,” he said. Taking a swipe at the environmental, social and governance investment guidelines, he added: “The idea that investment in the UK defense industry is unethical is offensive.”
Radakin said these long-term supply contracts have allowed the British Ministry of Defense to dig deep into its own stockpiles and hand over more capacity to Kiev – including more than 1,600 attack and air defense missiles, as well as another tranche of long-range Storm Shadow cruise missiles.
After months of uncertainty about the West’s strategy in Ukraine, Radakin spoke optimistically about a situation in which all NATO countries “talk about spending more money.”
But even Ukraine says the latest round of support goes a long way toward stabilizing a deteriorating situation. “I realize that everything is less convenient when you are in Kiev,” admitted Radakin. “It must also be recognized that Russia has been able to carry out more effective long-range attacks than last year.”
Radakin also rejected criticism that the West had no overarching “glorious plan” to help Kiev win and had instead only given it enough military aid to forestall defeat.
“Don’t expect anyone to publicly say, ‘This is the plan,’ and A, B and C are going to happen now,” Radakin said. Some elements of Ukraine’s military action “will remain hidden.” . . Some are determined by a tactical or operational advantage, others also depend on more fundamental aspects,” he said.
Some of these factors “will mature much more strongly next year than they did this year,” Radakin said. But they “will allow Ukraine to take shape.” [the fighting] in a much stronger way than before.”
Additional reporting for Felicia Schwartz in Washington