New Delhi: With Poland becoming the main transit point for the US-led effort to transport weapons and military equipment to help the Ukrainian military against the Russian onslaught, hitting back, Russia has stopped its gas supply to the East European nation. The stoppage of gas supply to Poland and Bulgaria took effect from 8 AM Wednesday onwards forcing staunch US-ally Poland deeper into an unfolding economic crisis.
Agencies quoted Polish and Bulgarian officials as saying that the Russian backlash is due to the refusal of the two countries to pay for Russian gas in Roubles as demanded by President Vladimir Putin. While Russia is reeling under tightening US-led western sanctions over the Ukraine war, its gas meets 54 per cent and 75.2 per cent of the gas requirements of Poland and Bulgaria that is mainly used to generate electricity and heat homes.
Among the other major consumers of Russian gas in Europe are Czechoslovakia (100 per cent) and Germany (66 per cent). On its own, Poland has already supplied Ukraine with more than $1.6 billion worth of weapons ever since the Russian military action began in Ukraine on February 24. Every day, 8-10 planeloads of arms, ammunition and military systems are being sent to the war zone to aid the Ukrainian effort.
Besides being the landing point for weapons originating from other countries before being pushed into Ukraine, Poland is also playing host to the training of Ukrainian military personnel and fighters from other nations jumping headlong into the conflict. Poland’s position in helping the US-led war effort in Ukraine is becoming quite similar to Pakistan helping the US-led effort in Afghanistan. It was mostly through its bases, logistics and facilities in Pakistan that the US operated in Afghanistan.
Till now, the US has committed a big arsenal of weapons to Ukraine. The extensive array includes 90 M-777 155 mm howitzers with 184,000 rounds, tactical vehicles to tow the howitzers, more than 121 Phoenix Ghost tactical unmanned aerial systems, unmanned coastal defense vessels, AN/TPQ-36 counter artillery radars, AN/MPQ-64 Sentinel air surveillance systems, Javelin missiles, anti-armour systems, Switchblade drones, M113 Armoured Personnel Carriers, and 16 Mi-17 helicopters besides body armour, optics and laser range finders, explosives, etc. As part of the effort, about 9,00,000 rounds of ammunition made its way into the conflict zone totalling more than 50 million rounds since February 24, the day the Russian invasion began.
The war in Ukraine took an interesting turn on Tuesday after a new entity of about 40 nations—called the Ukraine Defense Consultative Group (UDCG)—was set up on Tuesday after a meeting of the heads of the defence services at the Ramstein airbase in Germany. The new body UDCG will meet every month to deliberate on the long term support for Ukraine's defences and will guide the EUCOM (United States European Command), the coordinating body for the Ukraine war effort.
Announcing the new body, Lloyd J. Austin, the US secretary of defence, said on Tuesday: “Today's gathering will become a monthly contact group on Ukraine's self defense, and the contact group will be a vehicle for nations of goodwill to intensify our efforts and coordinate our assistance and focus on winning today's fight and the struggles to come. The monthly meetings may be in person, virtual or mixed, and they'll extend the transparency, the integration and the dialogue that we saw today.”
The meet also saw Germany announcing 50 ‘Cheetah’ anti-aircraft systems for Ukraine, UK committing additional anti-aircraft capabilities and Canada saying it will send armoured vehicles to Ukraine with Poland likely to be the critical staging point for the shipment of the equipment to war-ravaged Ukraine.
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