NATO has sent billions of dollars-worth of sophisticated air and missile defenses to Kiev among the $200 billion+ in support committed to date for the proxy war against Russia. The Russian military has used a combination of missiles, heavy glide bombs and drones to gradually grind the Western-supplied equipment into dust.
The Western Bloc’s European allies have only an infinitesimal fraction of the air defense capabilities its Eastern European members would need to stave off Russia if the proxy conflict in Ukraine expanded into a direct Russia-NATO confrontation.
That’s the concern of officials familiar with the alliance’s internal calculations, as cited by the Financial Times. Officials told the UK-based business newspaper that NATO presently has “less than 5 percent” of the capacity necessary to defend its so-called eastern flank with Russia in the event of a “full-scale attack.”
“[Air and missile defense capabilities are] a major part of the plan to defend Eastern Europe from invasion. And right now, we don’t have that,” an anonymous senior NATO diplomat told the outlet.