To what extent was the West unprepared for a major military conflict in Europe, and how ready is Ukraine to become a NATO member? These conclusions were drawn by Alexey Arestovich during an online broadcast with Yuriy Romanenko.
"We are bringing West to NATO standards. We are imposing NATO standards. Let me explain why. Projectiles of different types of tanks, even with a standardized caliber, are not compatible with each other. Moreover, for tanks like Leopard, projectiles of different modifications don't always fit. That's a simple story.
And what can we say about the compatibility of missiles that can be launched from different platforms? Not all shells are compatible with different howitzers. Now it's being demonstrated. We've seen it in practice. That diversity. Yes, they (the West) are beginning to realize that the interoperability that has been talked about for so long, for which they created an alliance, invested significant resources, and conducted special programmes, is not there. Sometimes, even within a single army, they struggle to coordinate, let alone creating joint task forces and exchanging material supplies. Because it turns out that 155mm shells for the Cesar system are completely incompatible with the 155mm shells for the Krab system.
And now they are seriously considering this, and there's a programme for the production of ammunition that includes a programme for standardizing these munitions.
This is happening now because standardization is being achieved at a high cost. And all of this has been brought about by our war with Russia and our efforts, which have practically shown them that they are not prepared for a major conflict. The West is not prepared for a major conflict.
Their thinking has long been shaped by counter-insurgency warfare. Their policies are geared towards counter-insurgency warfare. They have utterly failed in preparing for a large-scale military conflict in Europe. They were absolutely unprepared for it, but now they are revising their doctrines. We can see this in the discussions they're having; these doctrines are being revised slowly and without much expertise. When Mick Ryan, a retired Major General of the Australian Army, talks about speed, he's also referring to the speed at which the Western professional and political community is realizing the changes that, firstly, came about due to this war and exposed their shortcomings. Secondly, how this war has completely reaffirmed, contrary to newfangled doctrines, that special forces and drones don't win wars – it's the classic principles of warfare that prevail.
The Ukrainian defense forces continue their offensive operation on the Bahmut and Melitopol directions​
It turns out that what was true in the 3rd century BCE or in the 4th century is still true today. And now, the most sought-after experience is not the experience of wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam, and so on. It's the experience from World War II and World War I. Mobilizing the economy, mobilizing vast numbers of troops, creating large formations, employing large formations – this is all indicative of protracted warfare on the European theater.
But here, in just 18 months, with the assistance of our allies, the Ukrainian armed forces effectively neutralized the 2nd largest army in the world and put it on the defensive. Today, we're talking about the fact that the Russian army is defending itself against the Ukrainian army and has every chance of losing, even if our support remains the same, without any increase. We will break them – it's just that breaking them will take longer if their support doesn't strengthen, and it will take just as long even if it does.
Which Western experts, who have built their careers – whether academic, military, or political – on the Russian military threat, would believe this? This was what the entire Western community was saying before the war began, that Ukraine would last for only three days, and so on and so forth.
And today, we're discussing how far we've advanced in a single day and how many planes have been destroyed in Pskov. The Ukrainian people, the Ukrainian government, and the Ukrainian defense forces achieved this. We did this despite all our shortcomings and quirks, despite corruption, despite the fact that we couldn't manufacture mortars. We stand three heads above many of our NATO allies. This is a question of readiness for NATO. Are we ready to join NATO? We are more ready to join NATO than two-thirds of the states that have been in NATO for decades and were absolutely unprepared for the main challenge. And this is the main purpose for which the alliance was created – the ability to defend its members through armed means, north of the Tropic of Cancer"
