More than 70 days into the Russian-Ukrainian conflict with the theater of war located in different parts of Ukraine, President Zelensky appears to have found his voice.
He continually affirms that his country will be victorious in this battle. This is a different Zelensky that the world watched closely in the early and mid March, 2022. He was a man full of great concern, and even till date, but now differently.
An African adage says that when a masquerade is dancing, the drums are being played nearby.
So, which drums are playing for Volodymyr Zelensky today?
After a seeming dilly-dally at the onset of the Russian invasion of Ukraine by NATO members including the US, recent events among them show things have taken an upward swing in favor of President Zelensky and his country.
From UK, Ukraine’s early visitor
Since PM Boris Johnson’s visit to Kyiv, the UK has given bilateral aid to Ukraine to the tune of 2 billion pounds. An additional military support of 300 million pounds has also been pledged.
It is not only the military side that gets the attention. The humanitarian appeal fund in London announced over 300 million pounds raised by the Disaster Emergency Committee (DEC).
Fortnite, Epic Games Makers says it has raised more than £10 million by networking with Xbox to support humanitarian activities in Ukraine. This donation makes it rank tops as highest single corporate donor.
Other international donors
The US has particularly championed the cause of raising funds for Ukraine among several friendly and NATO member Nations.
On its own, the US Congress at the early days of the battle approved 13.6 billion dollars. A breakdown shows that military supplies gulped about 3.5 billion dollars in packages such as ‘Javelins’ and other anti-amor machines, small weapons and ammunition. There are also what is classified as non-lethal equipment and defense supplies.
These supplies have also gone up since the early days of the war.
President Joe Biden’s administration spent substantially on intelligence and military supplies to allied countries in Europe.
Since no war can be won without impeccable intelligence, the US government is doing this to support allies in Europe as well as Ukraine. Although Ukraine may not receive directly from the US expenditure on enforcement of sanctions (imposed on Russia and its oligarchs), about 180 million dollars was ascribed to this.
The Javelin targets heat-seeking rockets up to 4 kilometers distance and controlled from a handheld remote. About 3 billion dollars has been moved to Ukraine in military aid since the outbreak of the war.
Recently, Biden announced 800 million dollars for heavy artillery, howitzers and tactical drones for use in flat plains like Eastern Ukraine.
Others include drones that can be turned into a flying bomb and anti-aircraft weapons for bringing down helicopters from the sky.
Though these equipment may be provided, men are needed to operate them. This in turn requires that there is a great need for training.
The ‘Switchblade’, drone designed to crash into enemy territory before blowing up, is now in the hands of Ukrainians in their hundreds. Others yet include stinger anti-aircraft systems, artillery systems, body armor, helmets, rifles and Soviet designs of the helicopters employed successfully in Afghanistan in the past.
Ukrainians will not be in short supply of Ghost drones, a new arrival in the US Arsenal. However more training on its use is known to be required.
Ukraine claims to have destroyed more than 800 tanks and 2000 Russian vehicles.This cannot be independently verified.
So far, Ukrainians have been vulnerable to attack by Russian war planes. But the US have supplied about 25,000 anti-aircraft weapons by early April 2022.
Even Slovakia has intervened, supplying Ukraine with soviet-era S-300 anti-aircraft missiles. This can hit war planes at higher altitudes. Several NATO and western Nations like Germany, France, former Soviet bloc countries like Slovakia, Poland and a host of others now send money and materials to Ukraine.
Germany which initially was reluctant to get into the situation has now sent anti-aircraft systems. So far it has increased its military budget from where it will substantially assist Ukraine to 2 billion-euro.
France has also agreed to send Milan (anti-aircraft missiles) and Caesar (howitzers) to Ukraine in support of Zelensky’s defense effort.
So, the world can now understand why it has not been a walk over for Putin to take over Kyiv and the rest of Ukraine after more than 70 days