A Finnish professor of military history has claimed that western weapons supplies to Ukraine have been so influential in the current conflict with Russia that the country may not exist without them.
Adjunct professor of European military history and non-fiction writer Markku Salomaa has claimed that supplies of advanced weapons from the United States and other allies to Ukraine have proven to be an immense boon for Ukraine in its current conflict with Russia.
“It has been critical to Ukraine’s survival. Without U.S. arms shipments, Ukraine would no longer exist. Modern Western weapons technology has forced Russia to retreat on several fronts,” Salomaa told Finnish broadcaster Yle.
Security policy researcher Mikko Räkköläinen echoed the sentiment saying, “One example is the HIMARS rocket launchers, with which the Ukrainians have destroyed Russian supply lines. Another example is the various anti-tank weapons, of which tens of thousands have been delivered to Ukraine from the West.”
Miliary-grade weaponry including U.S. hardware in Ukraine is allegedly being sold on to international buyers via the messaging app Telegram. https://t.co/1TiV4gMCKl
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) May 15, 2022
“In addition, arms and equipment assistance would not have solved anything if the Ukrainian war leadership had not had sufficient expertise to plan and carry out counterattacks,” he added.
According to Yle, while arms pouring into Ukraine from the west have played a major role in the conflict, it is unlikely that even a substantial increase in weapons would be able to defeat the Russian military but would likely simply preserve the current status quo.
Mr Räkköläinen also expressed concerns that weapons from the war could end up lost or sold on saying, “It is likely that weapons such as assault rifles and hand grenades that are easy to transport and hide will end up on the black market.”
Similar concerns have been made through the conflict from various sources, such as the Canadian NGO Project Ploughshares, which stated as early as March that it was concerned with the possibility of weapons being sold illegally.
“There is the real threat that the Ukrainian government can potentially not control all of these weapons,” Project Ploughshares researcher Kelsey Gallagher said and added, “Whenever this conflict does subside … these weapons aren’t just going to go ‘poof’ and disappear.”
Other reports have claimed that weapons may already be being sold to criminals in Europe, as an Italian newspaper reported in May that weapons from the conflict were being sold on the encrypted messaging app Telegram.
Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson(at)breitbart.com.
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