Ukraine: two-faced Cameron

By Richard North - April 16, 2024

Forced to recognise the anomalous levels of support as between Israel and Ukraine, Cameron found himself struggling to explain why this should be so.

Addressing specifically the role of the RAF in shooting down Iranian drones on their way to Israel, Cameron made the obvious point that RAF aircraft could not be involved in the same task in the skies over Ukraine because that would bring Nato forces into direct contact with Russia and escalate the conflict.

He went on to say that jets weren’t always the ideal option to down missiles and drones, asserting that air defence systems work better (which is arguable in the case of drones). But, with that in mind, the foreign secretary acknowledged that Ukraine has a significant need for air defence systems, particularly the US-built Patriot.

However, in something of a throwaway line, Cameron expressed his regrets that the UK did not have the Patriot in its inventory so it could not supply these missiles.

The UK itself has been somewhat behind the curve in the provision of land-based air defence systems. When, in 2012, the British government felt the need for air defences to protect the Olympics in London, it was forced to borrow a battery of Rapier missiles from the Army.

Subsequently though, this 40-year-old system has been replaced by the Sky Sabre system, developed by three main contractors, the Israeli Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, the Saab Group, and MBDA (pictured).

The system came into service with the British Army in 2021/22, and has since been deployed to Poland to bolster that country’s capabilities.

The Sky Sabre system actually uses the SkyCeptor missile, a version of which is also to equip Royal Navy Type 45 destroyers, as an upgrade. In its current iteration, it is described as having a “plug and play” capability which allows its insertion into the Patriot family.

This missile is in fact, more capable that most of the Patriot missile versions and, as part of a US-Israeli joint project, involving the US defense contractor Raytheon, is to upgrade the Israeli David’s Sling missile system, which was part of the Israeli’s successful counter to Saturday’s Iranian missile barrage.

It is more than a little disingenuous of Cameron, therefore, to cry crocodile tears about not being able to supply Patriot missiles when the UK actually has an equivalent (and slightly better) system, which is also compatible with Patriot radar and control equipment.

Not only that, the UK has been prepared to deploy its first operational battery to Poland but, apparently, is not planning to make it available to Ukrainian forces over the border, where the need is that much greater.

So far, all the UK has been willing to do is provide Ukraine with the short-range StarStreak missile, developed in the late 1980s. Although a capable weapon, it has limited range and no anti-missile capability.

The reluctance of the allies (including the US) to equip Ukraine to the same level as Israel has not gone unnoticed by Zelensky who, in a long tweet yesterday voiced his concerns.

“The entire world witnessed allied action in the skies above Israel and neighboring countries”, he wrote, which “demonstrated how truly effective unity in defending against terror can be when it is based on sufficient political will”.

“Israel, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Jordan acted together and with maximum efficiency”, he observed. “Together, they prevented terror from prevailing. And they are working together, and in coordination with others, to prevent further escalation”.

In a barbed comment, Zelensky went on to say that Israel was not a Nato member, so no action, such as triggering Article 5, had been required. And no one, he added, was dragged into the war. They simply contributed to the protection of human life.

He noted that the “Shaheds” in the skies above Ukraine sounded identical to those over the Middle East, also pointing out that the impact of ballistic missiles, if they are not intercepted, is the same everywhere.

Cutting to the chase, he then wrote: “European skies could have received the same level of protection long ago if Ukraine had received similar full support from its partners in intercepting drones and missiles”, adding: “Terror must be defeated completely and everywhere, not more in some places and less in others”.

In a somewhat less than subtle barb, he then thanked “everyone in the world, every leader and state, who truly assists us with air defence and missiles necessary to protect our skies, as well as training our pilots on F-16s”. All of this, he said, already works and will continue to work to save lives.

However, he concluded, “we can now see how unity can work truly a hundred percent, and how almost a hundred percent of ‘Shaheds’ and missiles can be intercepted. We will discuss it with our partners”.

The post has been picked up by Politico, which has run an article headed: “Ukraine backers blast ‘double standard’ after allies rush to Israel’s defence”.

Elaborating on the Twitter post, it has Zelensky and his supporters asking: “If you can do it for Israel, why not for Ukraine?”. Pro-Kiev allies say that the Iran attack episode proved the problem was a lack of will, not one of capabilities.

“The common resolute allied response shows how effective our joint efforts can be when there is enough will”, says Tomáš Kopečný, the Czech envoy for Ukraine’s reconstruction, speaking to Politico.

The online paper goes on to observe that in Ukraine, where senior commanders now warn of deteriorating conditions on the front, the coordinated Western response to Iran’s attack “prompted disbelief, rage and bitter mockery”.

“So it was possible to hit the aggressor in the teeth together and at once, and prevent the bloodiest war in the centre of Europe after the Second World War from the very beginning?”, Viktoria Siumar – a Ukrainian opposition politician – wrote in a caustic Facebook post.

Being generous, one can only suppose that Western politicians do not realise quite how bad the situation is in Ukraine, where much of the electricity system is teetering on the point of collapse, and hard-pressed Ukrainian troops are being bombed out of their positions along the Donbass front.

At the apparent epicentre of the fighting is still Chasiv Yar, which the Ukrainian C-in-C, Oleksandr Syrskyi, now concedes is “Russia’s next big objective”.

With the town battered by glide bombs and Russian strike aircraft freely roaming the skies overhead, one recent report speaks of mass surrenders of Ukrainian troops and of units being disbanded after unauthorised retreats from the eastern part of the town, where Russian troops are said to have gained a foothold.

The agency Ukrinform claims that Ukrainian forces have repelled 73 enemy attacks in five sectors of the front over the last day, most of them in the Bakhmut and Novopavlivka sectors, the former taking in the Chasiv Yar fighting.

Since the start of this year, Russia has fired 1,000 missiles, launched 2,800 drones and 7,000 guided aerial bombs at Ukraine, writes the New York Times, the details supplied by Ukraine’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Sergiy Kyslytsya.

While Washington and other allies have provided Kiev with some powerful air defence weapons, they have not directly confronted Russian forces, and Ukrainian officials have long argued that the supplied weapons are insufficient to counter the threat from Moscow.

Unsurprisingly, the paper is writing of the Ukrainians seeing “hypocrisy” in the Western allies defence of Israel, citing Amil Nasirov, a 29-year old singer.

“When rockets fly in Israel, the whole world writes about it”, he says. “Here, rockets are flying, and we don’t have American bombers that are saving the sky like over Israel”. Not without bitterness, he adds: “It’s very stupid; it’s hypocrisy. And it’s like some devaluation of Ukrainian lives”.