Re: Mis Ukrainas toimub? vol.4
Postitatud: 18 Dets, 2016 14:14
"Newsweeki" artikkel: Igapäevased tümitamised viivad Euroopa sõja äärele.
Lethal military aid for Ukraine is an ongoing topic of debate in Washington. When U.S. lawmakers debate whether to arm Ukraine, they typically focus on how an influx of U.S. weapons will affect the current conflict in the Donbas. There are concerns that U.S. weapons could worsen the conflict, or spur the Kremlin to supply more arms to the separatist side.
But Ukraine isn’t asking for U.S. military assistance to fight trench skirmishes in the Donbas—it wants anti-aircraft missiles and anti-tank weapons to stop a Russian invasion.
Ukraine now has the second-largest standing army in Europe; Russia has the largest.
After a two-year crash course to rebuild its military, Ukraine has increased its active-duty ranks from 150,000 to 250,000 troops. (France has about 209,000 active troops, Germany has about 176,750 active troops, Spain has about 133,000, Poland has about 101,500, and the U.K. has about 153,600.)
Ukraine rebuilt its army “almost from scratch within two years,” Poroshenko said in the Independence Day speech. Today, “Ukraine is capable of defending itself, but requires further support,” Poroshenko said.
Ukraine has also increased its defense budget to about $6 billion, representing roughly 5 percent of the country’s gross domestic product. Military spending is set to increase by about 10 percent annually.
Russia, which has three times the population of Ukraine and 10 times the GDP, has an active-duty force of about 800,000 with a reserve force of 2 million. Russia’s 2015 defense budget was about $65 billion—roughly 10 times that of Ukraine and on par with the United Kingdom.