BERLIN, June 5. /TASS/. Continued weapons to Kiev in the absence of a clear strategy could threaten the West’s existence, while allowing Ukraine to use Western-supplied weapons for strikes inside Russia will not have any major consequences to Moscow, German military expert Ralph Thiele said in an interview with Focus Online.
According to Colonel (Ret.) Thiele, who formerly served in the personal staff of the NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe, in the context of the Ukraine conflict, some Western politicians and media outlets "have been pushing for using weapons, troops and aircraft without enough reasoning." Such an attitude, the expert argued, carries major risks amid a lack of defense capabilities at NATO. Therefore, additional weapons supplies to Ukraine may pose "an existential threat" to the West, he warned.
"We [Germany] have a blank sheet of paper, and so does NATO, because, apart from the US, NATO is us [Germany]. And we hardly have any relevant military capabilities," Thiele said as he compared the confrontation between Russia and the North Atlantic Alliance to a game of poker.
The continued arms deliveries to Kiev are weakening Western economies and defense industries, depleting their stocks of weapons and munitions, Thiele maintained. Meanwhile, releasing Western weapons for use on Russian soil has no major consequences for Moscow and cannot change the situation on the battlefield for Kiev, he added.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirmed on May 31 that US President Joe Biden had authorized the use of American weapons for attacks on Russian territory. According to him, they can only be used to attack Russian regions near Kharkov. Blinken didn’t rule out the possibility of expanding the range in the future.
On the same day, the German cabinet of ministers announced that German weapons may be used to shield the Kharkov Region from Russian attacks. At the current time, there is no unity in the Western countries regarding restrictions on the weapons they supply to Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on May 28 that the selection of targets and flight assignments for modern strike systems are made remotely or automatically, "without the presence of Ukrainian servicemen." This is done by those who produce and supply these systems to Ukraine, he pointed out. Putin warned that NATO countries should "realize what they are playing with." Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev emphasized on May 31 that all long-range weapons delivered to Ukraine are already "directly controlled by NATO servicemen" and that such actions could be a pretext for retaliatory strikes.