The attention has been diverted from the conflict in Europe to the war in the Middle East, Finland’s top diplomat has said
Western countries are increasingly feeling tired in terms of supporting Ukraine and are hoping for a sooner resolution of the conflict, Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen has said.
The diplomat made her comments during an interview with the Financial Times published on Tuesday. When asked by FT’s Henry Foy about “Western fatigue” with regards to supporting Ukraine, Valtonen replied: “It’s real, and increasingly so.”
According to FT, Valtonen acknowledged that some attention and resources have been diverted from Ukraine to the conflict in the Middle East.
“These two conflicts are, of course, very much linked,” Valtonen told FT, without elaborating. “For us Europeans it would be important to realize that if we allow Russia to win in Ukraine, then essentially we end the credibility of our deterrence,” she added.
“There is support for Ukraine, but what is sufficient? That is the question,” the diplomat said. “Many [countries] would like to think, since especially with the war waiting in the Middle East, it would be great if we found an answer to this war.”
Western military aid packages have been growing smaller in recent months, as several of Ukraine’s major backers found that their own arms stockpiles were growing thinner. Further delays in deliveries were caused by the in-fighting in the US Congress and bureaucratic hurdles.
Germany, one of Ukraine’s leading sponsors in the EU, has no more heavy armaments to send, the tabloid Bild reported on Saturday, citing internal Defense Ministry documents.
Washington, meanwhile, has been facing issues of replenishing its own stocks after sending armaments to Ukraine. “That’s a fair assessment that our supplies are not endless,” Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh told journalists on Tuesday.
The US has “issues when it comes to reinvigorating the defense industrial base,” she said, adding that the US must consider its own defense given the multitude of challenges, including helping Israel and “keeping an eye on the Indo-Pacific.”
Ukrainian officials repeatedly linked the delays in weapons deliveries to setbacks on the battlefield, where the Russian troops have been steadily gaining ground in the Donbass and have recently launched an offensive to recapture the part of Russia’s Kursk Region, which Ukraine invaded in early August.
The Russian forces captured dozens of settlements in recent weeks, including the heavily fortified mining town of Ugledar.
Kiev has warned its Western partners not to fall victim to the “fatigue” and called for the continuing support of Ukraine’s war efforts. “I just can’t believe that anyone after two years of war thinks ‘we’re tired, let’s lose the war,’” Ukrainian presidential adviser Mikhail Podoliak told the French news agency RFI in February.
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