RIA "Novosti"published a note "Stocks of equipment to be sent to Ukraine in the West are running out, said in Britain." Under this heading is a message about an interview with British Secretary of Defense Ben Wallace to The Washington Post :
“Stocks of military equipment that the West can transfer to Ukraine are running out,” British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said in an interview with the Washington Post.
He noted that as the conflict drags on, Western countries continue to provide weapons and funding to Ukraine, without putting pressure on Kyiv to start negotiations with the Russian Federation.
Earlier, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, in an interview with Bloomberg, said that the countries of the alliance need to increase the production of ammunition, as their stocks have become scarce.
Upon closer examination, it turns out that RIA conveys the content of the interview in a rather peculiar way. The American newspaper article is titled "UK Defense Secretary, Nato Challenger Sets Out Vision", with the subtitle: "In an interview, British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said the alliance should push its members to spend more on defense, if we want to contain Russia." Wallace talked about how the world is becoming more dangerous and alarming, so the next NATO Secretary General should be able to provide continued funding for the alliance. He believes NATO needs to pay more attention to outreach to more persuasively communicate threats to voters, such as Russian President Vladimir Putin's willingness to challenge international borders:
“Before the war happened in Ukraine, there were too many people who did not want to see the threat from Putin, and look where we are now.”
In his opinion, the same complacency exists today regarding the threats emanating from China and the destabilizing activity in Africa.
Wallace called "one of the positive results of the war in Ukraine" that more than half of NATO countries have increased their defense spending since the start of a full-scale Russian invasion, approaching the benchmark of 2%, as they recognize the need for what he called "cultural changes." He particularly appreciated the corresponding step taken by Germany, which for a long time lagged behind in terms of military spending.
Wallace is optimistic about Ukraine's actions at the front and argues that there is a real possibility of the liberation of Crimea already this year, when the Russian forces run out of the necessary equipment:
“What we have seen on the battlefield is that if you hit the Russian troops in their weak spot, they will actually collapse. You can send tens of thousands of young people to their deaths, which they do, but you can't conjure up the tanks and weapon systems they need."
Wallace noted that at the NATO leaders' summit in Vilnius, Ukraine will not become a member of the alliance, but a number of countries are ready to conclude bilateral or multilateral mutual defense pacts with it and accept long-term plans to build up Ukrainian military potential. This should deter Russia, as "its ground forces will be significantly depleted over the next 10 years."
According to Wallace, the scale of Russian losses suggests that Putin still believes he can win if he sends more troops to the front. Wallace suggested that Putin may not be getting accurate information about military activities and may not realize the extent of his country's military problems until the moment of collapse or internal challenge. According to the minister, in this case, "NATO and the West must be ready for anything."
All this propagandists from RIA Novosti preferred to ignore, and only one paragraph towards the end of the publication caught their attention:
"'But we've seen the reality that we're all running out of' military equipment that could be donated," Wallace said, referring to the UK and other countries having to buy more arms than donate them from national stocks. ".
That is, now deliveries to Ukraine will mainly consist not of old weapons that have been stored in warehouses for years, but of newly produced modern equipment. He clearly does not see a big problem in this.
