RIA "Novosti" in the article under the heading "British Defense Minister recognized the weakness of Europe" writes :
“Europe is exhausted and vulnerable due to military assistance to Ukraine,” British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace quoted The Independent as saying.
“Our ammunition, the level of defense capability, our ability to withstand attacks are now, what we call, 'below the plinth',” the head of the military department said.
The Minister called for thinking about a long-term increase in the defense budget as the world becomes more dangerous and unstable. He added that London will not soon be able to provide aircraft to the Armed Forces of Ukraine due to the high cost of their maintenance and crew training.
Wallace really spoke about the impossibility of an early delivery of aircraft to Ukraine, however, explaining this not by the high cost, but by the need for long-term training of pilots and maintenance teams, which he compared with Formula 1 engineering teams. The rest of the RIA conveys extremely peculiar.
First of all, Wallace did not call support for Ukraine the cause of the problems of the armed forces of European countries. He argues that the war in Ukraine has made some problems obvious:
“Ukraine has exposed across Europe – including in France, Germany and elsewhere – our own vulnerabilities. <…> Our ammunition stocks, our readiness levels, our ability to meet Russia or any other enemy that decides to play with or attack us, are at a level that we call “below the threshold”. <…>
It's been well known for decades that when the military had to skimp on things like readiness or infrastructure, the most unattractive parts of the defense were underfunded: maintenance, ship lifts, all sorts of things that you and I don't think are all that exciting, but which, nevertheless, very, very important."
An elegant substitution of concepts – the transformation of the expression "below the threshold level" (below threshold) into "below the plinth" – I would like to especially note. Well, yes, the architectural details are close.
Wallace also spoke about the army, which, as a result of the war in Ukraine, was in a deplorable state (in a dire state in English), but this army is not British, not NATO or Ukrainian, but Russian, the decrease in combat effectiveness of which he estimated at 40%:
“Yes, Putin’s ground forces are in a deplorable state. But he still has options with the use of the Air Force and the Navy, which are not so badly affected. <…>
It is known that Russia at the beginning of this year concentrated a huge amount of its air force, but was unable to use them properly due to anti-aircraft missiles supplied by the West.
Where propagandists from RIA discerned the thesis of an “exhausted Europe” in The Independent publication remains a mystery. But Wallace's main idea is that, given the weaknesses in the British defense that have been discovered, the defense budget should be increased.
