Grant Shapps to send UK troops to Ukraine
Grant Shapps to send UK troops to Ukraine
Army will train Zelensky’s military on the ground and Navy may move into Black Sea
cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/9906910
Grant Shapps to send UK troops to Ukraine Army will train Zelensky’s military on the ground and Navy may move into Black Sea
By Edward Malnick, SUNDAY POLITICAL EDITOR 30 September 2023
British troops will be deployed in Ukraine for the first time under plans being discussed with military chiefs, the new Defence Secretary has disclosed....
They want a war to win the election.
Worse, they start one just to dump it in Labour's lap with a parting "ta-ra, suckers!"
They seem to be creating as big a mess as possible before they get booted out next year, so Labour will have to spend their first term cleaning up the mess while the Tory press blame them for it.
This could be our Falklands, Elizabeth
Or it could be our Crimea...again.
“Particularly in the west of the country, I think the opportunity now is to bring more things ‘in country’, and not just training but also we’re seeing BAE [the UK defence firm], for example, move into manufacturing in country, for example.
“I’m keen to see other British companies do their bit as well by doing the same thing. So I think there will be a move to get more training and production in the country.”
Sooo... Britain wants its defence contractors to get in on the ground floor, basically. We needed more exportable products to bolster the economy and so we're going to sell some more war and its associated service industries.
Everyone is trying to keep their hands clean and support abstract enough to avoid open war, but that stops them profiting as much as they could. Britain is going all in.
Rheinmetall recently announced that they were starting up a facility in Ukraine.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/10/business/rheinmetall-german-tank-factory-ukraine/index.html
Rheinmetall will open an armored vehicle plant in Ukraine within the next 12 weeks, shrugging off concerns other Western defense companies reportedly have about building a presence in the country while it is at war with Russia.
I am guessing that the factor is more that Ukraine's considered to have a decent-enough air-defense situation now that it's reasonable to start operating factories without worrying about them getting hit with missiles or something.
Even though this is an extension of the training it does make me uneasy.
Even the USA has shied away from having official troops or support personnel on the ground
It abject stupidity. There is no benefit for them being in Ukraine. They can train them in the UK. This is putting a target on the backs of servicemen in a points scoring exercise. It just shows how little these scum think regarding the well being of people who serve the UK.
Yeah, NATO countries are right on the border, training in Poland would work fine.
If the US (and other NATO allies but especially the US) disagree with this I'm imagining they wouldn't have let it happen. The US isn't shy of calling out the UK they've done that plenty of times in this Biden administration. If the UK (or any othe NATO ally) are now operating closer or inside Ukraine the US would have to have signed off on this and are comfortable with it.
If not we'll see a pretty rapid retraction of these plans and a public admonishment from Biden.
Misleading headline, really.