NATO TRIES TO RECEDE FROM KIEV’S WAR

The last few days marked several heavy political blows for the Kiev regime. All Zelensky’s begging for money went in vain. Ukraine’s European partners made another gesture of goodwill and held a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Kiev, the first outside the European Union. However, it was nothing but a show-off stunt. Josep Borrel said that regardless of the situation in the United States, the EU will continue to increase support for Ukraine. However, he also clarified that their meeting in Kiev is only a high–level debate that it had no goal to result in any political decisions. In other words, Kiev should not wait for money and weapons, only discussions. As a result, the European Foreign Ministers have not yet agreed on the allocation of 5 billion more euros for assistance to Ukraine in 2024. According to EU and US officials, Politico reported that the European countries can no longer supply Ukraine with weapons from their own arsenals, as this threatens their own security. After 18 months of intense fighting, European weapon stocks are reportedly “drying up on an industrial scale.” Poland recently announced plans to suspend arms supplies to Ukraine in order to strengthen its own capabilities. The French Armed Forces urged to review the share paid by Paris to help with the production of weapons. The Chief of Staff of the French Air Force said that France cannot endlessly pay for Kiev while its own systems are out of order for Ukraine. There is also no more money for Kiev in Washington. On October 1, Joe Biden approved the draft US budget for 45 days, which did not include assistance to Ukraine. On the same day, a Pentagon spokesman said that the agency had exhausted “all available means” to help Ukraine. Washington has suspended the financing of assistance programs to Ukraine due to the failure of Congress to allocate funds for this. The State Department spokesman explained that there are still some funds under the Presidential Drawdown Authority program, i.e. military assistance from the Pentagon’s reserves; but funding under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative and Foreign Military Financing programs has been suspended. These programs were supposed to provide long-term support to Ukraine. Meanwhile, Kiev continues to search for cannon fodder. The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine registered a bill, which should raise the age limit for soldiers from 60 to 65 years, and up to 70 years for the top military leadership. In his turn, the former head of the British Defense Ministry issued a new instruction to Kiev. In his interview, he called on the Ukrainian authorities to take more young people to the front. The average age of soldiers at the front exceeds 40 years so Zelensky’s wishes to save young people for the future are not destined to come true.