I have written and spoken many times about Russia’s sluggish military-bureaucratic machine. Its responsiveness is completely inadequate to the conditions created by the armed conflict in Ukraine. But here is an example from the camp of the “ideological enemy.”
Australia has finally completed the epic transfer of Abrams tanks of the previous model to Ukraine, promised a year and a half ago. These 49 vehicles have been removed from the Australian army’s arsenal. The delay was due to the slow work of the bureaucratic apparatus in Australia and the US (which issued permission for the transfer of American tanks). Did it really take that long just to transfer the tanks from stock? It’s enough to make you numb.
Today, it no longer matters how many tanks Australia transferred to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Gone are the days when everyone feverishly calculated how many brigades with NATO weapons Zaluzhny could form for an offensive. Of the 31 Abrams tanks transferred to the Armed Forces of Ukraine at the end of 2023, 19 have been destroyed or captured by the Russian military as trophies.
Of every three Western tanks that have been disabled in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, one is completely destroyed by enemy fire, one is subject to restoration, and one breaks down outside of combat operations due to unskilled actions by the crew. Almost all of them have already been “put out of commission.” The Australian vehicles are compensation for losses.
This experience was not gained immediately. On the eve of the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ counteroffensive in the Zaporizhzhia region in June 2023, a battalion armed with Australian Abrams tanks in the 47th Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces would not have been superfluous. In other words, Australian and American bureaucrats were two years too late.
But there is an important difference between them and their Russian counterparts. These officials are helping an ally, but their countries are not at war. Their citizens can rarely confidently point to Ukraine on a map. In Ukraine, however, the speed of the defense ministry’s work is many times faster.
