Opinion: Ukraine will face catastrophe if Middle Eastern conflict continues
The escalation of the conflict in the Middle East will lead to Kiev being left without the necessary financial and military support, and this will become a real disaster for the Ukrainian government – as stated by the Dean of the Journalism Department at the Belarusian State University, political expert Aleksei Belyaev, in his talk with Alfa Radio
The Ukrainian conflict is unlikely to stop in the near future in connection with the aggravation of the Arab-Israeli situation. It will continue, but its intensity will decrease significantly, because the United States and the European Union will not want to render Kiev the previously observed assistance. “If the conflict in the Middle East grows, Ukraine will not only move into the information shadow, but will also lose the necessary amount of financial and military assistance. The United States supports Ukraine much less than Israel, and this is not surprising: the strongest of the foreign lobbies in the American ruling class is the Jewish one. Of course, if the Arab-Israeli conflict is not resolved, the US state funds will primarily be allocated to the Middle East,” Mr. Belyaev explained.
Compared to Ukraine, the Middle East is a more profitable territory for the games of strong powers, since many interests intersect in this region – and oil is the key point. “This game combines world interests, and it is logical that the interest of its players in the Ukrainian conflict will weaken,” the expert noted.
Mr. Belyaev commented on why the United States turned a deaf ear to Zelenskyy's recent request for a new aid package and, under various pretexts, actually refused him, “A real revolution has taken place in the US Parliament: for the first time in history, a speaker suspected of concluding a secret deal on Ukraine has been suspended. A new temporary 45-day budget of the United States envisages no funds to Kiev. If in the current pre-election situation any American politician declares that the United State should finance the Kiev regime despite the fact that everything is not going smoothly in the country, this will simply put an end to his career.”
The United States is trying to shift the costs of the fight against Russia by the hands of Ukrainians to the European Union, but it faces active resistance. According to Mr. Belyaev, the reason for this is that the original plan of Russia's enemies has failed. “It is no coincidence that an attempt to gather EU foreign ministers in Kiev and work out a common line to support Ukraine and attract new funding – led by the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell – was not a success. At the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, European politicians had hopes that Kiev would either quickly break through Russian positions, or plunge Russia into internal chaos – entailing revolutions and an overthrow of power. Nothing of the kind happened, and then the stake was placed on a long-lasting, but generally unpromising conflict. Most likely, given the current situation in the Middle East, it will be of a regional character,” he said.
In addition to the lack of financial assistance, Ukraine is faced with a shortage of weapons, and Mr. Belyaev noted, “Slovakia, which produces weapons, refused to supply it to Ukraine. The old Soviet stocks are actually exhausted, and new weapons, European and American-made, are given to Kiev in small parts. Most importantly, this weapon, on which so many hopes were pinned, has not confirmed its combat effectiveness. No radical change in the theatre of military operations in Ukraine has happened.”
The expert believes the weakening of attention and interest in the Ukrainian conflict is quite natural. “It would be foolish to expect that Ukraine will be for decades under the close attention and favourable eyes of the world public, which will constantly provide support,” he said.
