Only just over £400 million of the £900 million (€1.04 billion) military fund earmarked for Ukraine and managed by the Ministry of Defense in London has been used due to bureaucratic delays in awarding contracts, delays that have led critics to accuse the government of being slow in supplying weapons to the front. The British newspaper Guardian writes it.
The International Fund for Ukraine, led by the United Kingdom, counts nine countries among its donors (GB, Denmark, Iceland, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Australia and New Zealand). Of the £900 million donated by governments over the past two years, including £500 million from the UK, only £404 million has so far been pledged or spent, the newspaper points out.
Some of the materials under already signed contracts will not reach Ukraine before spring 2025, the ministers admitted. The opposition accused the Defense Ministry of being slow. According to Defense Ministry officials, the delays were caused by the need to evaluate each of the huge number of defense companies that submitted bids for the contracts.
“Thousands of responses were received from industry to the requirements of the International Fund for Ukraine, each of which had to be reviewed individually. We make no excuses for making sure that all of this was done correctly and in a way that would help most Ukraine effectively,” a ministry spokesperson said.
Russian planes take advantage of the shortcomings of Ukrainian anti-aircraft
Ukrainian air defense capabilities remain limited and degraded, allowing Russian aircraft to operate freely and advance relatively quickly - without threats - in some critical areas of the front: the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) writes this on its website ).
The US study center cites in particular yesterday's missions of the Russian Su-25 and Su-34 aircraft which - according to some videos published by Russian military bloggers - flew at low altitude near Khasiv Yar, in the Donetsk region (east), hitting Ukrainian positions to allow the advance of troops into the area. Bloggers, the think tank's experts comment, have praised these air missions for allowing Russian troops to advance relatively quickly in the area since at least the end of last month.
The ability of Russian aircraft to operate more than 100 kilometers deep in Ukrainian airspace near the front line without suffering significant losses indicates that Ukrainian air defenses in the area are currently insufficient to deter or prevent Russian aircraft from operating on the front lines , writes the Isw.
The ability of Ukrainian air defenses to shoot down Russian strategic aircraft engaged in combat operations (as happened yesterday with the Russian Tu-22M3 long-range bomber, ed.) could temporarily limit the operations
of the Russian air force, the report concludes: however, this capability is unable to compensate for
Ukraine's critical air defense deficiencies across the theater.