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Meanwhile, Germany does not have a single combat-ready division.
Written by Ahmed Adel, Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher
UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said on July 19 that he had doubts that UK and US troops would fight in Ukraine when asked at the Aspen Institute’s Security Forum. Although this guarantee was made at the forum, Cleverly could not help but make bombastic claims, such as Russia’s military facing an inevitable collapse.
“Be under no illusion Russia is losing. Ukraine is winning,” Cleverly said from the forum held in Colorado on July 18 – 21.
“Russian forces have spent the winter digging in. They have riddled the South and the South-East of Ukraine with minefields with trench systems, with physical barricades, and Ukrainians are regaining territory over the course of weeks that Russia took months to acquire,” he said without any shame for the obvious lie he was making.
“Russia is losing on the battlefield, and we mustn’t allow ourselves to be seduced by the Russian propaganda that somehow this is a stalemate. It is not,” the British Foreign Secretary said.
Rather, Cleverly made a desperate plea in the US as anger and discontent are building, especially among certain Republican quarters, over the military equipment and billions of US dollars being wasted in Ukraine when it is entirely evident that Russia will win the war. However, the US and UK are not ready for Ukraine to stop fighting just yet, so even though they are unwilling to commit troops, they will provide all other support, including propaganda.
For his part, US President Joe Biden stated on July 13 that he would not send US troops to Ukraine; but the commander-in-chief signed an executive order authorising the US military to increase its forces in Europe by 3,000 reserve personnel.
Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. commented that Biden made this decision as part of preparations for a land war against Russia.
“President Biden just called up 3,000 reservists to augment U.S. troops in Europe as part of ‘Operation Atlantic Resolve,’” Kennedy tweeted on Friday. “I want people to understand what this troop mobilization is about,” he continued. “It’s about preparing for a ground war with Russia.”
Even the usual war hawk, Texas GOP Senator Ted Cruz, was disturbed by Biden’s decision and tweeted, “This is reckless [and] dangerous. I want to see Putin defeated, but UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES should U.S. servicemen [and] women be sent to fight in Ukraine. Biden’s weakness started this war [and] now he’s threatening to put our military in a shooting war with Russia.”
GOP Utah Sen. Mike Lee weighed in on the president’s European mobilisation in a Twitter thread, warning that the move is “daring Russia to shoot first.”
“I’ve been trying to figure out what this means. Bottom line up front: President Biden is arguably walking the U.S. up to the line of war and daring Russia to shoot first,” Lee wrote.
There are currently approximately 100,000 US troops stationed across Europe – a vestige leftover from the Cold War era, and there is no sign that there will be a rollback as Washington maintains its control over the Old Continent in this way. At the same time, from the NATO perspective, US troops are needed as many European countries have destroyed their own military capabilities.
It was revealed that Germany does not have a single combat-ready division, a military unit comprising more than 20,000 troops, but it will try to deal with this problem in the coming years.
“I am very optimistic that we will get it (the division for 2025) done,” German Army Chief Alfons Mais told Reuters in an interview published on July 17, adding that a new division would initially have 80%-90% of the required personnel and that the plans were agreed with NATO.
European countries are attempting to rebuild their militaries as they have been drained of equipment and resources to support Ukraine’s war on Russia. However, rebuilding and reequipping are problematic as European countries do not have the resources to build their own militaries while simultaneously supporting Ukraine.
“If we rush ammunition to Ukraine, we don’t have it available ourselves until the new orders come in,” Mais said. “You can’t buy munitions at the DIY store, production capabilities have shrunk over the past 30 years.”
“But supporting Ukraine is more important right now than establishing a division, as NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has stressed,” he underlined.
Cleverly has definitely ruled out sending the British military, as has Biden with the US military, despite concerns from some quarters in the US that he might provoke Russia. Coupled with Europe’s inability to rearm and support Ukraine simultaneously, the Kiev regime is facing major issues as Russia is seemingly preparing for its own offensive, and despite the ludicrous claims made by Cleverly, reality will once again set in when the Russian army is once again on the march.
