On Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree to add 100,000 troops to Ukraine’s armed forces over the next three years and said the move does not mean war with Russia is imminent.
Zelensky told parliament that he signed the decree “not because we will soon have a war … but so that soon and in the future, there will be peace in Ukraine.” Ukraine’s armed forces currently consist of 250,000 soldiers.
Zelensky has been at odds with the US over the threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine. He has been calling for calm and said Western leaders are creating a “panic” by claiming a Russian assault was imminent, and his position has angered some US and European officials.
At the same time, Zelensky wants the US and other NATO countries to continue arming Ukraine. Since the Russian invasion claims began in November, the US has approved additional military aid for Kyiv. In recent weeks, US planes have been delivering weapons and ammunition to Ukraine.
Also on Tuesday, Ukraine’s prime minister said Kyiv is working with Britain and Poland to boost cooperation and military ties. As part of the increased cooperation, Poland is planning to send Ukraine shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles.
“I hope that in the near future we will be able to officially launch a new regional format of cooperation Ukraine-Poland-UK, in the context of ongoing Russian aggression, we should sign a trilateral document on cooperation to strengthen regional security,” Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmygal said.
Hah! He can add half a million new soldiers and it won’t change the military balance. Russia could still destroy the Ukraine military. It just might take a whole week or even two instead of three days.
As for the “alliance” Ukraine, Poland and the UK, that is simply going to provoke Russia even more as it pretends to be a new “NATO-substitute” alliance. The obvious idea is that with UK allied to Ukraine and the UK a member of NATO that Ukraine becomes a “de facto” member of NATO. Because if Ukraine gets into a war with Russia, then the UK gets involved in a war with Russia, which means the UK gets to call on NATO, who gets to call on the US. This isn’t going to fly with Russia.
All this means is that Poland and the UK will now come under the gun if Russia has to deal with Ukraine militarily. Those two countries really don’t want that, if they had any brains.
Because Ukraine is simply awash in disposable cash for military projects that generate negative ROI.