POKING PUTIN: New Weapons from the West Heading to Ukraine
No matter how infinitesimal Vladimir Putin makes his political chess moves, he’s still going to run out sooner or later.
The Russian leader is overseeing the most pointed military mishap in several decades, (or longer), and he has just about exhausted his supply of threats against those who seek to intervene on Ukraine’s behalf. Pretty soon, Mad Vlad is going to have to put up or shut up, and who knows what that means for the safety of the planet at large.
This week, the west again poked and prodded at Putin, as new western weapons began to head toward the front lines.
In a potentially escalatory move, French President Emmanuel Macron became the first Western leader to supply Ukraine with tanks following talks with President Volodymyr Zelensky.
On Wednesday, the Elysée announced that French-made AMX-10 RC light tanks — which were designed in the 1980s and are currently being phased out of the French military — will be sent to Ukraine. The move is a significant change of position from the Macron government, which hitherto has shied away from sending armour to the war zone for fear of escalating tensions with Moscow.
France has already been supplying Kyiv (Kiev) with air defence systems, anti-aircraft missiles, artillery, and armoured vehicles, but President Macron has been one of the few voices in Europe to consistently call for continued peace negotiations with Vladimir Putin to bring the conflict to an end.
There was no mistaking what this meant.
The decision to send French-made tanks to the battlefield appears, therefore, to be a first move in shifting perspectives from western capitals on the viability of peace talks with the Kremlin.
And that wasn’t all:
Just days later, U.S. President Biden said he too would be sending armoured fighting vehicles to Ukraine, selecting Bradley M2s to be donated. Germany is also getting involved, announcing at the same time it would be sending Marder IFVs to Ukraine, a potentially risky move given the German Army has just brought back its now-vintage Marder armour to front-line service, given the new replacements have so many problems they have proven totally unusable in actual service.
The decision of Germany to send the Marder armour follows months of intense debate at home, which at times has even touched on whether to send heavy tanks — not just the lighter Infantry Fighting Vehicles now being supplied by France, the United States, and Germany.
Putin has recently moved several Zircon missiles to the Atlantic Ocean on warships, likely as a warning to the west.
There’s no telling what this latest transaction with Ukraine will prompt as far as further Moscow military maneuvers go.
