And to give us more perspective on this,
were being joined by Mr.
Sergei Simlini. Mr. Samlini is a defense expert and also
a director of the European Resilience Initiative Center is joining
us live in this broadcast.
Mr. Samlini, this seems to be a difficult kind of
a puzzle for the European allies of Ukraine to crack.
Now the United States says that it is caught up
in its own domestic politics and therefore it is not
able to send more military aid.
But Europe seems not to be able to produce enough
gunpowder that is used in manufacturing this
155mm shells. What do you make of these excuses?
Thank you for invited me for this conversation and indeed
you have pointed that something cracked up.
The situation is very dire and we may even say
that Ukraine is facing now perfect storm
with the support from every single main ally is being
blocked,
either blocked or significantly reduced.
The Ukrainian army has not got any support from the
US since months and the US is the biggest supplier
of crucial Ukraine's ammunition including artillery shells.
Europe has not managed to produce 1,000,000 artillery shells within
a year until April
20/24/2024 as it was promised and planned.
And it is not the lack of like 10 or
20%.
The production is at least half
compared to the plant to the plant
scheme. We know also that Russia gets a lot of
ammunition and supply not only from Iran but also from
North Korea,
which helps Russia to increase its artillery strikes against Ukrainian
forces.
And in addition to that,
Ukraine also suffers from the economy problem because of the
blockade by the Polish farmers
of the Ukraine Polish borders.
Polish farmers do not let Ukrainian sellers to send grain,
wheat and corn to Germany,
which is one of the main receivers of Ukrainian corn.
So Ukraine suffers militarily and economically in this situation.
And the Ukrainian army has left of Devka crucial point
in the eastern front during the last weeks exactly because
of the lack of ammunition which cannot be compensated by
other means. Absolutely. Now when you hear
you know reasons that Europe is short of stuff such
as nitrocellulose
that is used in manufacturing these
155mm shells, because this nitrocellulose is something that China exports.
And now China has stopped the export of nitrocellulose to
Europe.
You know what goes through?
You know what how, How are the Ukrainian strategists looking
at developments such as this?
Indeed, once again, I can only,
I can only support what you what you're saying.
Russia is massively buying nitrocellulus,
which is a crucial raw material for producing artillery shells,
explosives in artillery shells. And
Russia buys nitrocellulus in China,
but not only also in Germany
and in Taiwan, as the Ukrainian study has revealed last
week that Taiwan has already announced that they will
investigate the case. And if it is the case,
they will stop this expert.
But Germany hasn't demonstrated any will to to stop this
expert.
And here we need to understand that Microsoft can be
used also in other industries and Russia clients that they
use it for textile production like
T-shirts and jeans and shirts.
But if we look on internal consumption
of normal cellulose in Russia,
we can see that they they have not increased the
production of
textile materials like shirts, T-shirts,
all the clothes,
while they massively increase the import of nitrocellulose.
So where all the nitrocellulose goes?
It goes to the word production.
And the Ukrainian researches which published last week this report
they have
they have demonstrated which companies buy Nitro solar in Russia.
They all or almost every of them is directly connected
to military production, to to to production of shells.
And that is what Germany is.
And Europe overall doesn't isn't ready to stop yet because
our sanctions against Russia are still too weak.
Nitro Solos is not on the list,
and we tolerate selling of this stuff to third countries
like Kazakhstan,
Armenia and all the countries from where it goes directly
to Russia.
All right, we'll have to leave that.
Thank you very much indeed,
Mr. Sergei Sammlini, for joining us and getting us that
perspective there.
Thank you so much. Beyond is now available in your
country.
Download the app now and get all the news on
the move.