The hits just keep coming: a senior British military source has told The Telegraph that the UK has depleted available military equipment to give to Ukraine. Unlike the US or Poland at this point, it's not a question of funding or political will, but the British military has simply run out of vital arms and ammo to give, apparently.
"We’ve given away just about as much as we can afford," the official told the paper, explaining that all along the UK had encouraged other allies to keep arming Kiev.
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"We will continue to source equipment to provide for Ukraine, but what they need now is things like air defense assets and artillery ammunition, and we’ve run dry on all that," the official added.
The shortage was revealed after controversial remarks given by recent Defence Secretary Ben Wallace:
The comments come after Ben Wallace revealed that he asked Rishi Sunak to spend £2.3 billion more on support for Ukraine before he resigned as defence secretary last month.
Mr Wallace warned that the UK had been overtaken by Germany as the biggest European military donor to Ukraine as he called for the 50 per cent increase on funding that the UK has committed so far.
And now the public spat is yet another setback for the pro-Ukraine war cause, as The Telegraph underscores in saying, "The Western alliance has suffered a series of blows in recent days, with support for Ukraine dropped from a US stop-gap budget bill, election success for a pro-Russian party in Slovakia and rows between Poland and Kyiv over grain supplies."
These trends suggest NATO support and unity is fracturing, given also the most powerful country in the world is in a severe political fight, with the fate of future billions for Ukraine on the line. Biden still tried to 'assure' allies in phone calls on Tuesday.
And now the UK's resolve could be fracturing too. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's reaction was that he would not waver:
Last night a senior military source told The Telegraph that the onus should not be on the UK to provide the “billions” Mr Wallace has called for.
“Giving billions more doesn’t mean giving billions of British kit,” they said, adding that the UK had a role to play in “encouraging other nations to give more money and weapons”.
...On Monday Mr Sunak was forced to insist that the UK’s commitment to Ukraine would not “waver” in the light of Mr Wallace’s comments.
Man the hits just keep on coming
— ayden (@squatsons) October 3, 2023
This is beginning to look like a coordinated message and not just an unfavorable article here or there.https://t.co/mRzs6DLNQs
The last months have seen Ukraine undertake a series of high-risk major operations against Russian-controlled Crimea, including significant strikes on the naval port of Sevastopol - including docked ships, submarines, and even the headquarters of Russia's Black Sea Fleet.
The latter strike reportedly used UK-made Storm Shadow cruise missiles. They are effective, and yet such an advanced UK-made missile is clearly in short supply, not to mention very expensive, at over $3 million per unit.
