Europe would be unprepared for war - foreign policy expert

  • 2023-01-12
  • LETA/TBT Staff

RIGA - NATO countries have been quite relaxed in the military aspect since collapse of the USSR and the end of the Cold War, focusing on disarmament campaigns, therefore Europe would be unprepared for war, said foreign policy expert and long-term member of the Saeima foreign affairs committee, Atis Lejins.

"Germans, and broadly the whole Europe lacks ammunition. After collapse of the USSR and the end of the Cold War, Europe launched a broad disarmament campaign and has fallen into a deep sleep in relation to a possible war on the continent. It should be admitted that Europe does not have any more weapons to be sent to Ukraine," he said.

In his opinion, if Russia attacked a NATO member state and Article 5 had to be put into action, the only countries that would be able to stand against it are the US and the UK.

At the same time, he said that the situation is not all bad, the West still continues to arm Ukraine. At the end of the year Germany sent four Iris-T SLM systems to Ukraine which are just released from the factory. The US has delivered the famous Patriot system to Ukraine.

Lejins reminded that the Baltic states delivered weapons to Ukraine already before Russia's attack, including Stinger.