The recent commitment by President Biden to send M1 Abrams tanks, along with NATO ally Germany’s Leopard 2 tanks, into Ukraine to bolster their defenses against Russia’s invasion of the country has led to fears of global escalation of the conflict.
In his announcement, Biden called the M1 Abrams tanks “the most capable tanks in the world” and said they would “enhance the Ukraine’s capacity to defend its territory to achieve its strategic objectives.” He added that the Ukrainian military would use the armor to “liberate their land.”
In addition to the tanks, the U.S. and allied countries have already sent thousands of armored vehicles, along with ammunition and anti-ship and air-defense systems, to assist in Ukraine’s defense. Russia has responded to the growing NATO countries’ support for Ukraine with increased questionable attacks on the innocent.
According to the Daily Mail:
Stefano Sannino, secretary general of the European Union’s European External Action Service, said Vladimir Putin will increase indiscriminate attacks on civilians and non-military targets and retaliate against the West.
Speaking at a news conference in Tokyo as part of an Asia-Pacific tour, he said Putin had “moved from a concept of special operation to a concept now of a war against NATO and the West”….
The EU is not looking to escalate hostilities but is “just giving the possibility of saving lives and allowing the Ukrainians to defend (themselves) from these barbaric attacks”, Mr. Sannino said.
On a Russian State TV show last month, Konstantin Sivkov, a “military expert and prominent supporter of Russia’s war against Ukraine,” reportedly said “that Moscow must begin preparing for a war with NATO in spring 2023.” He added that “Russia must focus on preparing more missiles for this conflict.” A video clip of Sivkov’s comments was tweeted by Anton Geraschenko, the advisor to Ukraine’s minister of Internal Affairs.
Sivkov continued, “We need to produce more powerful and modern weapon systems, given the inevitability of a clash with NATO in the near future.” When asked to clarify “whether he meant an armed conflict and whether it would be World War III or a nuclear conflict,” he said that “the conflict may not necessarily be nuclear but insisted that a showdown was inevitable.”
Adding to the disturbing rhetoric of the war in Ukraine escalating into a full-blown NATO conflict with Russia, the chairman of NATO’s Military Committee said “the alliance is ready for a direct confrontation with Russia.”
Newsweek reported on Sunday that “Bauer, an admiral in the Royal Netherlands Navy, told a Portuguese television channel, RTP, that NATO is focused on rearmament as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s strategic objectives go beyond Ukraine and could possibly expand to neighboring countries.”
The U.S. and Germany’s reported goal of sending sophisticated tanks to Ukraine was to give an “armoured punching force to help Kyiv break combat stalemates” in the war with Russia. But will using those state-of-the-art tanks instead lead to an escalation of the conflict, with the potential use of NATO forces?
According to the Daily Mail:
Volodymyr Zelensky thanked allies for their support but renewed calls for tougher sanctions on Moscow and made clear his country needed more weapons to repel the invaders in the twelfth month of the war.
“This evil, this Russian aggression can and should be stopped only with adequate weapons. The terrorist state will not understand anything else,” Zelensky said in his nightly television address on Thursday.
Raising the fears of a potential global conflict, Chinese military expert Song Zhongping told the Global Times that “the danger of ‘another World War’ in Europe is increasing…. Kiev will always pay efforts to drag its NATO allies to directly fight with Russian troops in Ukraine, as this is probably the only way for Kiev to turn around the current situation. But Washington is not stupid, so it won’t be used by Kiev, but will keep using Kiev to undermine Moscow.”
Understanding that it may be months before the new tanks arrive and play their part to defend Ukrainian forces, Song said that “Russia won’t wait and see Ukraine troops to get fully armed by those NATO weapons.” The Global Times added that “Russian troops will likely launch a new round of major offensive[s] to maximize their advantage and victory before the situation gets more difficult in the future.”
It is hard to know how the war in Ukraine will progress in the next few months. What we do know is that the increased support from the U.S. and NATO allies may very well bring about a direct conflict with Russia.
