The latest attack on Kyiv and the school of war

Ukraine has been struck by more than twenty ballistic missiles; none were intercepted. President Volodymyr Zelensky, having spent months pleading in vain with his allies to supply Kyiv with their air defence systems, has said that Ukraine – which is unable to neutralise the attacks – will seek to strike the ballistic missile launchers in Russia. The allies are helping, and they are important, but they are keeping their distance, to the detriment of Kyiv and of themselves. The same is not true of Russia, which has a circle of collaborators eager to take part in its war in order to learn how to wage their own. There is no solidarity; everyone has their own enemy, but today’s war is being shaped on the Ukrainian battlefield: those who do not learn how to fight it will lose. The Islamic Republic of Iran sent its Shahed drones to Moscow in 2022 and saw them returned upgraded: in Russian arms factories, their speed and warheads were improved, and Tehran has used them against the whole of the Middle East. China is accused of sharing training programmes with the Russians and supplying military components, as any testing of its equipment against Ukraine can help Beijing study modern warfare. North Korea has sent its soldiers to die in the Russian region of Kursk to prepare them for real combat and, according to Reuters, has also deployed a missile unit in Russia armed with 120,000 ballistic missiles and six launchers for attacks against Ukraine. (Flammini continues in insert IV)

Kim Jong Un couldn’t care less about Kyiv; he wants to put his missiles and his men to the test, and the same goes for the Chinese and the Iranians. Doing favours for an ally who has already moved from theory to practice is useful. Russia’s friends coordinate their actions for their own benefit.

The Ukrainians are beginning to shift the tone of their appeals to their allies: the defence of Kyiv is no longer merely a matter of values, but also an investment. Whilst Vladimir Putin’s inner circle is wasting no time in learning how to wage war, using the conflict in Ukraine to upgrade its own weaponry, Kyiv’s allies are not doing the same, running the risk of being left exposed. Europeans have alternatives to the American Patriot systems, such as the Italian-French Samp-T project; however, not only has mass production not yet begun to make up for American shortfalls, but the project still needs to be scaled up to counter the Kremlin’s combined and massive attacks, and there is only one way to do this: deploy the defence systems in Ukraine. Whilst others are learning how to wage war, Ukraine’s allies remain unprepared and even defenceless.

Micol Flammini