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After Russia launched what it described as a “special military operation” on Ukraine in February 2022 to de-nazify the country, NATO shipped light arms to Kyiv.

As Russian forces advanced, heavier and more sophisticated weapons have been sent to Ukraine, including modern battle tanks and Soviet-era fighter jets.

The flashpoint of the war has taken place mainly in the country’s eastern Donbas region next to the Russian border.

The latest pledge in billions of euros of weapons to Ukraine is another bid to maintain a stalemate and comes after Russia appears to have the upper hand in the eastern Donbas city of Bakhmut, the longest and deadliest battle of the war so far.

Experts have pointed out that capturing Bakhmut would effectively pave the way for Moscow to secure the entire Donbas region.

The Russian Defense Ministry spokesman, Igor Konashenkov, says “the fiercest battles continued to be fought by units on the western outskirts of Bakhmut.”

This is the last remaining flank Ukraine says its forces hold on to in the city.

The promise to ship more arms was secured in the Ukrainian President’s quick trip to NATO members in Europe. Volodymyr Zelensky’s whirlwind tour to NATO members was not on a peace initiative as the international community has been calling for.

Instead, it comes ahead of a long-expected counter offensive that will drag out the conflict for a prolonged period of time.

The NATO members that the Ukrainian leader visited have stated the weapons are needed to assist Ukraine in this anticipated counter offensive.

Zelensky secured billions of dollars in military aid during the tour, which ended in the UK, where Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced more military hardware from British arms manufacturers.

This comes after the UK became the first NATO member to supply Kyiv with long-range cruise missiles, which will allow Ukrainian forces to hit Russian forces and depots far behind the front lines.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov says that Russia viewed Britain’s decision to supply the missiles “extremely negatively”.

“Britain claims to be at the forefront among those countries that continue to pump weapons into Ukraine,” he told reporters in a daily call.

London’s arms shipments will not change much on the ground, Peskov said, adding, “It cannot have any significant or major impact on the course of the Special Military Operation, but it all leads to more destruction, to further military action and so on. So, for Ukraine, it makes things much more complex.”

Konashenkov has announced for the first time that the Russian military had downed a long-range Storm Shadow missile supplied to Kyiv by London, which only last week publicly announced that it was providing them.

“Air defense systems intercepted seven (U.S. shorter-range) HARM anti-radar missiles, one (British) Storm Shadow long-range cruise missile, and ten (U.S. shorter-range) HIMARS-launched missiles during the day,” he stated.

But NATO still refuses to deliver more advanced warplanes that Ukraine has been long asking for.

The U.S.-led alliance publicly says Russian forces have been heavily weakened during the Ukraine war, yet the unwillingness to send sophisticated warplanes comes from NATO member’s fear of a direct confrontation with Moscow.

After Zelensky held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris, the French leader announced France will begin training Ukrainian fighter jet pilots on his country’s soil, an idea the Macron government had refused to entertain just a few months ago.

During an interview with France’s TF1 Presenter Gilles Bouleau, Macron was pressed on why the government has now decided that Paris is ready to train Ukrainian war plane pilots in France.

This is while France has rejected Ukraine’s request to deliver fighter jets to Kyiv in line with NATO’s policy of keeping the conflict at an impasse.

Here is a snippet of the interview:

TF1 Presenter:

“He (Zelensky) must have asked you for fighter jets, as he asks all the Western leaders he meets. You told him no? No for today, no for tomorrow, no forever?”

President Macron (deflecting on the question):

“We have opened the door to training the pilots.”

TF1 Presenter:

“In France? Ukrainian pilots in France?”

French President Macron:

“(And we are doing this) with several other European countries which are ready, and talks are ongoing with the Americans.”

TF1 Presenter:

“From when for the French planes? On Mirage 2000s? We can guess.”

French President Macron (deflecting on the question):

“Training can start right now.”

TF1 Presenter:

“So there is no taboo?”

French President Macron:

“There is no taboo… (Presenter interrupts Macron and says “there was a taboo for a few months”). No, we always followed the same line.

Pressed further about delivering warplanes to Ukraine, Macron said he had not discussed that issue with Zelensky.

As the U.S.-led NATO military alliance ships tens of billions of dollars worth of weapons to a conflict that sees no signs of abating any time soon, there has been a drain on resources in the NATO member countries who are facing major economic problems.

These problems have strongly affected the public sector in many Western countries, who have seen both public and private sector workers repeatedly go on strike and stage protests over an unprecedented rising cost of living crisis as a result of the conflict in Ukraine.

The protests have increasingly seen demonstrations against support for the war, NATO itself and in France a rally was held in protest against the Ukrainian leader’s visit to the country.

Meanwhile, Russian officials have denounced remarks by Macron that Moscow is becoming a subservient to China, saying Western countries must get used to a new world, nurtured by a strong Moscow-Beijing relationship.

In March, Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in an official visit, during which the two sides said they were deepening their strategic partnership by entering “a new era” of ties.

Peskov says Russia’s ties with China had nothing to do with dependence on Beijing and were more to do with those of a strategic partner.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko also implied that the West had become obsessed with Moscow’s strengthened relations with China and changes that implied for a new world order.

“The West is scared by the emergence of a multilateral system of international relations with a range of independent centers, such as Russia and China, which is happening before our very eyes, this emerging new world order means the end to the centuries-long dominance of the golden billion countries.” Grushko wrote in a statement on the ministry’s website.

According to Russian officials, the West cannot get rid of its bad habits of pitting old friends against each other by any means possible and ongoing attempts at driving a wedge between one country’s ties against another.

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The war was begun in February 2014 with a speech by Russian President Vladimir Putin and continues until now.

Putin told the Russian people that he was conducting a “special military operation” to “denazify” Ukraine and prevent NATO from expanding to Russia’s borders.

Many in the West see the war, which many consider it the most disruptive conflict in Europe since 1945, as a war of choice by Putin, but he says that NATO’s 2008 decision in favor of eventual Ukrainian membership brought an existential threat to Russia’s borders.
This article, aim to list the reasons for the start of the war, its process, and the costs of the war.

Reasons of war

Several important reasons for the beginning of the war have been listed.

Russia declared one of the reasons for starting the war to help the Russians living in the two republics of Donetsk and Luhansk, two separatist regions of eastern Ukraine in Donbas.

Russia has repeatedly stated that the two regions have a Russian majority and should either become autonomous or join Russia.

The Kremlin has declared racism against the Russians as the reason for the war.

Story of two provinces

After the Russian annexation of Crimea, Russians established self-rule governments in these two provinces. They were only able to take over parts of the two provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk, so a struggle started to conquer the two provinces. Ukrainian government forces also engaged in a military conflict against the separatists. As a result, more than 14,000 people were killed and a many were displaced.

In 2015, with the mediation of France and Germany, an agreement was signed between Russia and Ukraine, which became known as the Minsk Agreement. The main goal of the deal was to end the conflict between the Ukrainian army and Russian-backed separatists in Donbass. According to the agreement, in exchange for regaining control of its borders with Russia, Ukraine gave these two regions autonomy in many areas, which was supported by the United States and its allies.

But the agreement was annulled by the war, and once again Donbass became the core of the crisis between Russia and Ukraine and Putin said in his speech before the start of the war: The people’s republics of Donbass have asked Russia for help.

NATO expansion to the East

As mentioned above, one of the most important reasons for the start of Russia’s war against Ukraine was Kyiv’s decision to join NATO; in another word, to expand the military coalition to Russia’s borders and threaten the country.

In his speech, Putin said: I will begin with what I said in my address on February 21, 2022. I spoke about our biggest concerns and worries, and about the fundamental threats that irresponsible Western politicians created for Russia consistently, rudely, and unceremoniously from year to year. I am referring to the eastward expansion of NATO, which is moving its military infrastructure ever closer to the Russian border. It is a fact that over the past 30 years, we have been patiently trying to come to an agreement with the leading NATO countries regarding the principles of equal and indivisible security in Europe. In response to our proposals, we invariably faced either cynical deception and lies or attempts at pressure and blackmail, while the North Atlantic alliance continued to expand despite our protests and concerns. Its military machine is moving and, as I said, is approaching our very border.

Nuclear threat reason for start of the war!

Some sources say that another reason for the start of the war was Kyiv’s threat to resume its nuclear program, and to prove it, they point finger at the statements of Dmitry Medvedev, the former president and prime minister of Russia and the current deputy of the Security Council of this country.

Ukraine’s “threats” to resume its nuclear program were largely the reason for Moscow’s “special military operation,” Medvedev said on Nov, 7, 2022.

One of the reasons for conducting the “special military operation” was the “threats” by Ukrainian leaders that hinted resumption of the nuclear program, which Kyiv relinquished under the Budapest Memorandum of 1994, Medvedev wrote in a message on the country’s VK social network, according to TASS.

“What do we see in contrast next to our own borders? Poor puppets from an inferior state, now weeping bitterly about the decision taken under the Budapest Memorandum of 1994 to withdraw the nuclear arsenal located on their territory and inherited from the USSR,” Medvedev said, following statements describing South Africa’s accession process to the Nonproliferation Treaty.

Later, Medvedev said that Ukrainians always perceived Kyiv’s accession to the international treaty as a forced step decided “under harsh pressure from Washington,” adding that this was the case even though Ukraine “did not have the means to support the ‘might’ (nuclear weapons) that had fallen to it by chance.”

He further said Ukrainian leaders, from former President Leonid Kravchuk to current President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, have expressed that “they would be happy to use it (nuclear weapons) against us (Russia) and their own citizens (Ukrainians).”
Whatever the reason for this war, it cost a lot for the parties, especially the European Union, which was highly dependent on Russian energy.

This cost can be examined in two dimensions.

Direct costs

The war in Ukraine, which is called the most destructive in Europe after World War II, has cost a lot to the parties involved.

Ukraine imports most of the weapons it needs. Although the country does not pay for the purchase of these weapons, its supporters – Europe, the US, and NATO – who are forced and committed to supplying Ukraine with weapons, bear the most costs.

Although the exact costs of these countries cannot be assessed, the cases announced by them show that Europe and the United States have incurred a lot of costs, some of which are as follows:

Short-Term Military Support ($17 billion): This includes the transfer of weapons, both U.S. weapons and those purchased from allies, training of Ukrainian military personnel, and intelligence sharing.

Long-Term Military Support ($10.4 billion): This consists of money that Ukraine can use to buy new weapons, mostly from the United States but also elsewhere.

U.S. Military Operations ($9.6 billion): In the spring, the United States sent about 18,000 troops to Europe to strengthen defenses and deter Russia. These deployments cost money above what was planned in the DOD budget.

DOD General Support ($1.2 billion): This covers a wide variety of activities, some only tangentially related to Ukraine, to prepare DOD for future conflicts.

Indirect costs

Indirect costs can also be referred to human costs, war refugees and the EU energy debate.

Europe, as a place on the front line of Ukrainian immigrants, suffered from two aspects. First, Ukrainian refugees directly entered Europe. Second, there was the issue of gas and energy crisis.

Nearly 8 million refugees fleeing Ukraine have been recorded across Europe, while an estimated 8 million have been displaced within the country by late May 2022. Approximately one-quarter of the country’s total population had left their homes in Ukraine by March 20, 2022.

Another impact of the Ukraine war was on the European benchmark natural gas prices.

The countries of the European Union, as importers of Russian gas, were deprived of energy due to their positions, and the energy challenge has turned into a super crisis for several months.

The benchmark price spiked to 227 euros after Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, and to around 350 euros in late August. As of Jan. 3, 2023, the benchmark price is about 74 euros.

Of course, the same cases are also true for Russia; the country has also suffered a lot of financial losses in addition to the loss of lives.

The sanctions of the European Union and the United States against this country, especially in the field of energy, are one of these losses.

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Despite efforts of many independent countries to encourage Russia and Ukraine to put their guns down and come to the negotiation table, it was and still is the U.S. which encourages Ukraine to continue war against Russia because this world arrogance is the only one which makes money or political gain from this war.

While the war has caused chaos in the global economy and has pushed most countries into high inflation or recession mode, the West and predominantly the U.S. fan the flame of war because they sell their weapons to Ukraine.

Unfortunately Ukraine has fallen in the trap of the U.S. and has been involved in a war that it does not want to stop it because of the U.S. provocation, and Russia has no option but to give answer to Ukrainian troops.

According to a recent report, the U.S. has increased its arms sales to Ukraine and even to other European countries through creating Russiaphobia and Europeans had nothing but to follow what their lord, the U.S., asks.

The United States has reportedly approved arms sales to NATO Allies increased dramatically in 2021, compared with 2022, as the war between Russia and Ukraine prompted the member states into purchasing more weapons.

By some estimates, military spending by the United States and its allies is growing at a level without precedent since the end of the Second World War.

According to an analysis by Foreign Policy Magazine, the number and cash value of arms sales approved by the United States to its NATO allies has nearly doubled in 2022 Compared to 2021.

Despite calls for dialog to solve the crisis and end the conflict, many western nations have fanned the flames of war by flooding Ukraine with arms.

According to an analysis of two years of data from the US Defense Department’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency, in 2021, the U.S. government approved 14 possible major arms sales to NATO allies, worth around $15.5 billion.

In 2022 that jumped to 24 possible major arms sales worth around $28 billion, including $1.24 billion worth of arms sales to prospective NATO member, Finland.

While not all arms sales will be finalized as outlined in the proposals, the sharp uptick in these plans reflects a massive shift in Europe’s security landscape.

This has been the basis for the generation of vast profits for the arms manufacturers, with the US military industrial complex emerging as the key beneficiary of the war in Ukraine.

Despite conditions in which the Dow Jones Industrial Average has fallen by 10% for the year as a whole, the share prices of US defense contractors have surged.

Over the past 12 months the share price of Northrop Grumman has increased by 40% and Raytheon is up by nearly 17% while Lockheed Martin has surged by 37%.

Some of the approved U.S. arms sales in 2022 were years in the making, such as Germany’s plan to purchase F 35 fighter jets in a deal of worth around $8.4 billion, in contrast, many other major arm sales were rushed after the war broke out in Ukraine.

European countries on NATO’s eastern flank dashed to replenish and fully stock their own military capabilities in an effort to replace the equipment they shipped to Ukraine and deter Moscow.

The United States has already approved plans to sell HIMARS launchers to Estonia and Lithuania. And a similar plan for Latvia is expected to be announced within a matter of months.

The major European powers are surging their military spending with 10 NATO members spending more than 2% of their GDP on weapons this year, up from four NATO member states in 2014.

Any opportunity to supply weapons is profitable to the US Military Industrial Complex. This incentive is enough for perpetuating the Ukraine conflict.

Lockheed Martin, the United States largest military contractor, had booked more than $950 million worth of its own missile military orders from the Pentagon, in part, to refill stockpiles being used in Ukraine.

The Army has awarded Raytheon technologies more than $2 billion in contracts to deliver missile systems to expand or replenish weapons used to help Ukraine.

Ukraine’s unending demands for weapons supply have reportedly jeopardized NATO’s defense capacity and left Europe struggling to produce enough ammunition for the country and for itself as the war continues with no end in sight.

Since the beginning of the conflict in February 2022 media attention has regularly focused on the military assistance provided by states to bolster Ukraine’s war effort, with NATO members delivering almost $40 billion in military aid.

To date the United States and its allies have provided Ukraine with over 100 million rounds of a small arms ammunition, over a million rounds of artillery shells, and over 100,000 tank rounds.

This is in addition to providing Ukraine with some of the most advanced weapons in the U.S. arsenal, including the Armored Gun, the Patriot anti-aircraft systems, the HARM anti-radar missile, and Harpoon anti-ship missile.

In order to supply more weapons to Ukraine or convince other European states to follow it, the U.S. repeatedly claims that Russia uses Iranian drones and missiles. Although this claim has not been verified by the independent sources, the West uses it as a pretext for supply of arms to Ukraine for continuing war against Russia and in between the U.S. enjoys Ukraine resistance because Ukrainians are acting in favor of the U.S., and American arms industry makes most of this baseless patriotism and continuation of Ukrainians and even Russians.

So with the current developments in the war scene in Ukraine and reports coming from the battle zones, one cannot expect an immediate halt in the war and the U.S. by fooling the world can continue selling arms to Ukraine and other European countries, and Washington does not mind how the world is suffering from this war even most American people are suffering but what matters for Washington and its arms dealers is to make money by selling arms and to weaken some of its rivals, namely, Russia and some European states.

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Nasser Kanaani said in his weekly presser on Monday that Iran is not a party to the war adding that Tehran has held talks with Ukrainian officials on their anti-Iran accusations.

Kanaani called on Ukrainian officials to stop leveling “accusations” against Iran, saying there is no proof that shows Iran is a party to the war.

The spokesman also turned to Israel’s anti-Iran threats, saying Tehran attaches no significance to such rhetoric.

He said the regime knows well that Iran will give a strong response to any act of aggression.

Kanaani noted that Israel is facing numerous internal crises and it uses a language of threat against Iran to distract attentions from its fragile internal situation.

The spokesman added that the Zionist regime has a long record of engaging in acts of aggression in the region, saying such crimes have only been possible thanks to the support the regime has received from the U.S. and some European countries.

Kanaani also talked about reports that foreign ministers of Canada, Sweden, Ukraine and the UK have called on Iran to accept a binding international arbitration on the issue of the downed Ukrainian aircraft in January 2020.

He said Iran has always stressed the need for consultations and negotiations on the issue in compliance with its international obligations and internal regulations.

The spokesman also turned to the talks for the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal.

He said Iran is fully prepared to conclude the negotiations for the removal of sanctions based on the draft agreement that is the result of months-long talks with involved parties.

Kanaani, however, stressed that this should be based on Iran’s red lines and that Iran will not wait indefinitely on the issue.

He also said that the Islamic Republic will spare no efforts to hold to account all culprits behind the U.S. assassination of the country’s top anti-terror commander General Qassem Soleimani.

Kanaani praised the role of General Soleimani as a distinguished figure in the fight against terrorism and consolidation of the resistance front.

“This glorious martyr devoted his life to faithfully serving the Iranian nation, Islam, and regional and international peace and security. He played a prominent role within the framework of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s strategic policies to secure regional and global peace and stability. He took effective measures against international terrorism and terrorist groups in the region,” he said.

He explained that the U.S. government, under former president Donald Trump, violated international regulations and legal principles and plotted and carried out the assassination of General Soleimani.

“This criminal act came as he was a top-ranking Iranian official and was on an official visit to Iraq. The criminal act of the United States in assassinating General Soleimani is a clear act of terrorism that was planned and implemented in an organized manner,” Kanaani said.

“Under international legal conventions, the US bears full responsibility for the crime, while all architects, organizers and culprits are accountable for the terrorist crime. The [Iranian] Foreign Ministry, in cooperation with other state institutions and the Judiciary, has therefore exhausted all available legal channels to bring the criminals to justice, and will seriously continue its efforts in domestic, regional and international courts of law until a final settlement is reached,” the Iranian diplomat stressed.

Elsewhere in his Monday remarks, Kanaani touched upon the restoration of diplomatic ties between Iran and Egypt, saying Tehran welcomes any positive initiative in this regard.

He said that Iranian and Egyptian foreign ministers held talks last month on the sidelines of the second regional summit on Iraq in the Jordanian capital of Amman.

During the talks, the two sides agreed to continue negotiations to work out a solution on consular issues, the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman explained.

“The two sides have basically no problems for [holding] dialogues, meetings, and bilateral exchanges of views,” he said.

Kanaani also pointed to the diplomatic efforts to revive the Iran nuclear deal, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

“There was a consensus that negotiations should continue with the aim of activating and finalizing the [Vienna] talks, and that the exchange of messages should go on at different levels.”

“Iran is fully prepared to conclude the Vienna negotiations on the basis of a draft negotiation package, which is the outcome of months of hard and intensive negotiations and observes its red lines. This readiness is not everlasting, and the ball is now in the Western side’s court,” he said.

Kanaani also underscored Iran’s principled policy of helping Afghan people and authorities to resolve problems in the war-ravaged country, saying that the Islamic Republic has been hosting millions of Afghan refugees for years even though it has not been offered any foreign assistance.

He also called for efforts to promote the political settlement of the Syria crisis, emphasizing there is no military solution to end it.

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The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden has been announcing fresh military packages on a regular basis, which means American weapons being sent to Ukraine will be keeping U.S. arms manufacturers occupied for a long time to come.

The combined U.S. military aid until now makes for a total of at least $25 billion committed since late February until August 3, according to the Ukraine Support Tracker.

On Thursday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced a new $2.2 billion military package for Ukraine and neighboring countries. Earlier President Biden had also approved a separate $675 million in weapons to Ukraine, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced.

But there is no sign the U.S. is ending there; on Friday the White House said Biden will request a further $11.7 billion in emergency funding from Congress to provide lethal aid and budget support.

The five largest companies in the world that manufacture weapons are all American: Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Boeing, Northrop Grumman and General Dynamics. In fact, half of the top 100 producers of arms are based in the U.S., while twenty are European.

In the aftermath of the Ukraine conflict, these five American firms saw their stock prices soar in a sign that investors believed profitable days were ahead. At a time when the broader stock market as measured by the S&P 500 had slumped by about 4%; Lockheed Martin’s stock price was up over 12% – with most of the gains occurring in its immediate aftermath. Northrop Grumman has jumped by 20%.

It’s not just the dealers making profit. Over the past months, reports have emerged showing how members of Congress stand to personally profit off the war with lawmakers or their spouses holding stock in arms dealers such as Lockheed Martin or Raytheon Technologies.

Likewise, politicians in the UK such as members of the House of Lords made tens of thousands of pounds by owning shares in the largest British weapons manufacturer and sixth in the world: BAE Systems. The arms dealers’ share price rose by 23% following the outbreak of fighting in Ukraine.

It’s not just politicians who benefit from the vast arms supplies to Eastern Europe; weapons dealers have many people on their payroll as well. These include the many pundits on the face of American mainstream media who discuss the war in Ukraine while having strong links to U.S. arms manufacturers.
It makes the job of the Biden administration much easier when trying to sell to the public the reasons to send more weapons and making announcements about new military packages.
The U.S. has shipped at least 5,500 Javelin anti-tank missiles manufactured jointly by Raytheon Technologies and Lockheed Martin. The two firms will be paid to replenish American stocks with the money coming from a $40 billion package signed by Biden.

The other weapons America has been sending include longer range missile systems, anti-ship missiles, anti-tank missiles, anti-aircraft missiles, helicopters, rockets, launchers, howitzers, radar systems, drones, aerial systems, armored vehicles, small arms, artillery and other arms. Washington has also put aside money for training, maintenance and sustainment.

That’s a lot of arms being shipped over by the U.S., which is leading the Western war effort in Eastern Europe against Russia which has long blamed the U.S. and NATO for triggering the conflict.

Moscow requested an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Thursday to discuss Western arms supplies to Ukraine.

The Russian ambassador, Vasily Nebenzya, told the council it was a “fantasy” to believe that Western powers can determine the outcome of the conflict with their weapons supplies.

“Western weaponry is not playing a decisive role in the battlefield” Nebenzya said.

He warned that “a significant proportion of these weapons finds itself in the hands of smugglers right from the warehouses. In the darknet, you can find all kinds of offers to buy these weapons. We’ve already seen similar situations in the Balkans and the Middle East where Western military arsenals were then re-exported to Europe and then used by criminal groups on European territory or found their way into the hands of terrorists.”

The UN’s disarmament chief, Izumi Nakamitsu, has also warned that the flood of weapons being sent to conflict areas such as Ukraine “raises many concerns including the potential for diversion”.
Campaigners have also been speaking out about the consequences of where these vast number of weapons may end up. Kristen Bayes, a spokesperson for the Campaign Against the Arms Trade, says the provision of weapons to Ukraine is not problem free. “You might think you’re handing over weapons to people you know and like, but then they get sold on to people you absolutely don’t”.
Campaigners say the risk of advanced and sophisticated weapons delivered to Ukraine ending up on the black market is high because authorities are not in full control of all territory. They argue it is also difficult to keep track of the arms when they have been sent so quickly.

In July, the Financial Times quoted Western officials with knowledge about talks between several NATO members and Kyiv to explore a tracking system or detailed inventory lists for weapons highlighting Western fears about missing weapons.

“All these weapons land in southern Poland, get shipped to the border and then are just divided up into vehicles to cross: trucks, vans, sometimes private cars,” said one of the Western officials. “And from that moment we go blank on their location and we have no idea where they go, where they are used or even if they stay in the country.”

It’s not just the U.S. of course; the United Kingdom has also committed at least £2.3 billion in military assistance.  Following the UK is Poland, Germany, Canada, the Czech Republic, Australia and France. Out of the 28 countries sending weapons, 25 are NATO members.
Many European countries used the Ukraine conflict to announce plans for increased military spending. The additional commitments are worth at least €200bn according to the EU.
Germany committed an extra €100 billion in the coming years, with Chancellor Olaf Scholz saying defense would make up two percent of his country’s GDP from now on. As a result of the news, German arms manufacturers can expect to see their sales grow significantly. Berlin has already announced it will be purchasing 35 American F-35 war planes, which are produced by Lockheed Martin and have an estimated lifetime cost of $1.6 trillion.

The French President Emmanuel Macron has pledged to expand his country’s defence budget, while the British government had already planned increased spending before the conflict broke out but faces pressure from Labour to spend even more.

Poland said that it had requested 500 HIMARS launchers and ammunition from Lockheed Martin. Estonia confirmed it has been in touch with the American manufacturer also to buy launchers and ammunition worth. Latvia and Lithuania are expected to follow suit.

Campaigners say with so much profit being made from the war, it’s not surprising that peace is not being pursued.

The post U.S. arms manufacturers profiting greatly from Ukraine war appeared first on Iran News Daily.

The Leader said while people were fleeing the war, they stopped the refugees to separate the black people from the whites.

Reportedly, there have been widespread reports from African students fleeing the country that they faced segregation, racism and abuse.

The Leader also said Western officials clearly regret in their media outlets that this time the war is not in the Middle East and it is in Europe.

“It means that if war and bloodshed and fratricide is in the Middle East, as they call it, it is not problematic, but if it is in Europe, it is problematic. This is utter racism,” the Leader pointed out.

The insultation against the people of color in Ukraine reverberated across the world.

For example, CBS News senior foreign correspondent Charlie D’Agata said the war in Ukraine is particularly shocking because the country is “relatively civilized” and “European” compared to Iraq and Afghanistan.

D’Agata’s characterization was among a flurry of similar commentary in the media that critics have slammed as racist and, in some cases, historically inaccurate, according to Yahoo News.

While reporting from Kyiv a day after Russia began its invasion of Ukraine, D’Agata said of the latter country, “This isn’t a place, with all due respect, like Iraq or Afghanistan, that has seen conflict raging for decades.”

“This is a relatively civilized, relatively European — I have to choose those words carefully, too — city, where you wouldn’t expect that or hope that it’s going to happen,” he said.

Mohsen Pakaein, Iran’s former ambassador to the Republic of Azerbaijan, says the remarks by the Leader obviously shows racist approach of the West toward Africans in Ukraine.

Writing on the Khamenei.ir website, the former diplomat says ethnic Asians, including Indians, were also subjected to racism while trying to flee the war in Ukraine.

For example, Pakaein says, some Africans and Asians were not allowed to board trains to leave the country and they were forced to spend the night in train stations.

Such discriminatory behavior prompted the African Union to issue a formal statement to condemn “misbehavior” toward Africans.

The head of United Nations refugee agency, United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), also spoke out against the “ugly reality” that some refugees fleeing across the Ukraine border, and third country nationals, have been subjected to racism and discrimination.

In a statement issued marking the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Filippo Grandi said that although he had been “humbled” by the outpouring of support seen by communities welcoming well over millions of Ukrainian refugees since the Russian invasion began, many minorities – often foreigners who had been studying or working there – had described a very different experience.

“We also bore witness to the ugly reality, that some Black and Brown people fleeing Ukraine – and other wars and conflicts around the world – have not received the same treatment as Ukrainian refugees,” he said, according to allAfrica.com.

Representatives from the three African nations on the UN Security Council — Kenya, Ghana, and Gabon — all condemned reports of discrimination against African citizens at the Ukrainian border. “In the unfolding emergency, there have been disturbing reports about the racist treatment of Africans and people of African descent seeking to flee Ukraine to safety. The media is covering these appalling incidents and several states have confirmed that their citizens are suffering such treatment. We strongly condemn this racism and believe that it is damaging to the spirit of solidarity that is so urgently needed today.”

To exemplify racism by the Europeans, Poland is an example.

Poland refused to accept decision by the European Commission to accept Syrian refugees, however, it has announced that it is ready to host hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees.

A former Ukrainian deputy prosecutor general has also said he is saddened while he notices that European citizens with “blue eyes” and “blonde hairs” are being killed by missiles launched by Russia. The Bulgarian prime minister has also described Ukrainian refugees as “intelligent and educated”.

These moves and remarks show that racism is still high in some European states, especially those in Eastern Europe. Contrary to such revolting behaviors or remarks, non-European countries warmly welcomed refugees from Europe during World War II.

Moreover, the West, including Europeans, have been oblivious to the sufferings of people in West Asia. Yemen is a concrete example. The West not only did not make efforts to stop the war in Yemen, they even misused the situation to sell arms to the Saudi-led coalition in the war on Yemen. They were thinking of their pockets and not wedding ceremonies that turned out to be tragic scenes in the Saudi bombardments.

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Reactions to the Ukraine war in the region are telling. Several regional countries that are seen as U.S. allies have adopted positions that are indicative of fractures between the U.S. and its allies in the region. Israel, the most important ally of the U.S. in the region, has grudgingly condemned the war in Ukraine. Turkey taking a jab at the West even as it condemns the war.

The fractures are more evident in the Persian Gulf region. Arab allies of the U.S. in this vital region have adopted almost a neutral stance, calling for de-escalation without openly criticizing Russia. The Arab allies, who happen to be the oil-exporting countries expected to cushion the blow of soaring oil prices through pumping more oil, are reluctant to rush to Washington’s rescue. In doing so, they are sending messages of complaints about past U.S. negligence toward their needs.

The only country in the region that is adopting a balanced position is Iran which has called for dialogue and diplomacy to settle differences. At the same time, Iran clearly highlighted the risks associated with the expansion of NATO toward the East.

This position was pronounced by Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in a phone conversation with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. Raisi stated that the expansion of NATO to the East creates tensions, according to a readout released by the Iranian presidency.

“The expansion of NATO is a serious threat to the stability and security of independent countries in different regions,” the Iranian president told President Putin.

But the expansion of NATO does not forgo the need for diplomacy.  Thus, Iran underlined the need for diplomacy and dialogue. Ali Bahadori Jahromi, the spokesman for the Iranian government, said concerns about the expansion of NATO are understandable but diplomacy is necessary.

“Security concerns about the growing and provocative trend of NATO expansion to the East are understandable for all independent countries and those opposing U.S. dominance. At the same time, compliance with international law and humanitarian law and reliance on dialogue and diplomacy are necessary to stop conflicts,” the spokesman said on Twitter.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian further clarified Iran’s position on Twitter. “The #Ukraine crisis is rooted in NATO’s provocations. We don’t believe that resorting to war is a solution. Imperative to establish ceasefire & to find a political and democratic resolution,” Amir Abdollahian tweeted.

Earlier, the Iranian foreign ministry spokesman, Saeed Khatibzadeh, expressed regret over the start of military actions and the escalation of hostilities in Ukraine. He said Tehran was following the developments in the country with concern.

Iran’s position toward the crisis in Ukraine is two-pronged: Understanding Russia’s concerns over NATO expansion and favoring diplomacy over war.

This was clear in the statement Khatibzadeh issued on the situation in Ukraine. He said, “Unfortunately provocative moves by NATO spearheaded by the U.S. have led to a situation which has pushed the Eurasian region on the cusp of a big crisis.”

He underlined that Iran invites the two sides to stop the hostilities and establish a ceasefire for immediate talks in order to resolve the crisis through political means.

Khatibzadeh also urged Russia and Ukraine to observe international law and international humanitarian laws during the conflict.

The Iranian position was measured right from the start. As the crisis unfolded in Ukraine, Khatibzadeh said Iran invites all sides to exercise restraint and believes any action that could escalate tensions should be avoided. Khatibzadeh also called on all sides to work to resolve disagreements through talks and within a peaceful framework.

But the spokesman also drew attention to concerns about NATO expansion. “Unfortunately, interference and provocative measures by NATO and led by the U.S. have made things more complicated in this region,” he said.

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