Irony: Russia wants to buy back the defense stuff from clients to continue the war in Ukraine!
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: When Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, it self-assured to fold up the war in “48 to 72 hours.” Nearly 20 months on, as the longest war since the Second World War continues, the inconclusive conflict has turned into an embarrassment it can neither close nor continue without enough supplies.
So desperate Moscow is to keep the supplies going that it has now urged its client countries to return the defense material it had sold them! Even though at the receiving end, Ukraine has captured a lot of defense material from Russian soldiers unwilling to fight. This has further dented Russian supplies.
And so uncomfortable Russia is that its lawmaker, Valentina Matvihenko, the chairperson of the Russian Federation Council, has proposed the creation of a Ministry of Happiness to deal with the widespread stress in the country.
Finding itself in a difficult situation because of the protracted war in Ukraine, Moscow has recently turned to former defense allies for assistance to replenish its war supplies.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Russia has urged Pakistan to return the engines and spare parts of the helicopter Mi-35M, which is being extensively used in Ukraine. However, the Pakistani Foreign Ministry dismissed these reports.
Likewise, Russia urged Egypt, Brazil, and Belarus to return the equipment they had bought from it, the report said.
Citing sources, the WSJ said that Russian officials visited Cairo in April and urged President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to return more than 100 engines. The sources claimed Sisi acceded to the request and the deliveries will likely begin in December. Officially, however, Egypt also denied it.
Russian officials have rejected Western claims that its supplies are dwindling and steered clear of announcing specifics regarding its arsenal and domestic production.
The war in Ukraine has claimed tens of thousands of lives – mostly soldiers on both sides–devastated the country and sent diplomatic ties between the West and Moscow to historic lows.
In its report on Wednesday, the WSJ also alleged that Russia has received more munitions from partners, including North Korea – a claim made earlier this month by Seol and denied by Pyongyang.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Russia officially pulled out of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE), an international security pact that restricts the use of conventional weapons, saying NATO’s expansion has made such cooperation impossible.
