The United States and several of its NATO allies are coordinating the steady supply of shipments of much needed military supplies to Ukraine to deter a possible Russian invasion.
NATO countries have established what the Wall Street Journal is calling an “air bridge,” to bring the weapons and ammunition Kyiv needs in the event of Russia attacks.
The NATO countries participating in the air corridor include the U.S., the United Kingdom, Turkey, Canada, the Baltic Countries, the Czech Republic and Poland.
NATO countries are also sending additional military trainers to Ukraine to help prepare its military forces. The Kyiv Post reported earlier that crack troops from the UK are training Ukrainian special forces in counter-insurgency tactics, sniping and sabotage.
The UK instructors in Ukraine are working with their counterparts from the U.S., Canada, and Poland. Ukraine’s Minister of Defense Oleksii Reznikov announced that the eighth shipment of U.S. military supplies arrived in Kyiv on Feb. 5, bringing the total of recently supplied U.S. military hardware to 650 tons.
The U.S. has also sent Ukraine five Russian-made Mi-17 helicopters previously used in Afghanistan. Contributions by other countries include drones from Turkey, howitzers from Estonia, anti-aircraft artillery from Poland, and personal protective equipment along with surveillance and detection hardware from Canada.
Germany has refused to support Ukraine with military supplies – a stand that it continued on Feb. 5 when Germany’s Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht reasserted that her country would not send the much-needed hardware to Ukraine so as not to further provoke Russia.
On Feb. 6, Israel fell into step with Germany, announcing that it would not allow the Baltic States to resell Israeli-manufactured Spike anti-tank systems to Ukraine, noting that it did not want to inflame the situation.
Israel had sold the weapon systems to the Baltic States with strict end-user regulations that require approval of the original producer before a sale to a third party can take place. The U.S. has waived its own strict end-user restrictions on military hardware exported to Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia which they have now provided to Ukraine.
Ukraine has had limited access to the most modern military technology and lethal hardware, mostly using refurbished Soviet weaponry or supplementing what little they produce on their own with non-lethal supplies from NATO and the West.
Forbes noted that the increasing supply of military hardware and ammunition to Ukraine by NATO could be making a Russian decision regarding invasion of Ukraine more difficult.
CNN reported that US intelligence recently intercepted communications in which Russian military leaders stated that an invasion of Ukraine would be more costly and challenging than previously envisaged.
