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After the collapse of the socialist bloc and the end of the Cold War in the early 90s of the 20th century, it seemed that the term "arms race", synonymous with this time, had passed into history. Russia, which has repeatedly declared its geopolitical ambitions and revision of the world order, experienced a socio-economic crisis in the 1990s and went through two wars in the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. Despite its legacy in the form of most Soviet weapons, in those years, it paid less attention to the development and modernization of its military-industrial complex than it does now. China and other states at that time also did not have the current level of economic growth and geopolitical ambitions to compete with NATO in the quantity and quality of weapons.
Moreover, in the early 2000s, during the first stage of Putin's rule, Russia had quite good and partner-like relations with NATO. They were formed due to shared interests: against the background of the threat of international terrorism after the terrorist attacks in the USA on September 11, 2001. The Russia-NATO Council was established in 2002 and operated continuously until 2008. It also sporadically met in the future to resolve some specific issues. Russia also provided logistical assistance to the international operation in Afghanistan, which, since 2003, has been officially conducted under the NATO chairmanship. The parties participated in joint military exercises and peacekeeping operations.
A new "arms race" and competition in the arms export market
Relations between Russia and NATO began to deteriorate significantly in 2004 when 7 Eastern European countries were admitted to the North Atlantic Alliance at once, including the Baltic states, which were annexed by the USSR in 1940 and were part of it until its disintegration and were considered by Russia as its territories. Russian officials and diplomats have constantly emphasized (read more here and here) the existence of alleged verbal agreements between the Soviet and American leadership back in 1990, during the negotiations on the unification of Germany, about the non-expansion of NATO to the east. However, it is just a propaganda myth that Putin uses for his revanchist and expansionist policy. The last president of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev, confirmed that he directly participated in those events in an interview with a "Russian newspaper" in 2014, quoted by "Voice of America". Russian agitational propaganda spreads the thesis that the West allegedly "deceived" and "abandoned" Russia, once again using the "victim image" propaganda tactic.
A further deterioration in relations between Russia and NATO began in 2008 when the Alliance Summit in Bucharest gave Ukraine and Georgia an Action Plan on NATO membership. Putin launched an aggressive war against Georgia, which led to the collapse of the permanent Russia-NATO Council. Then came the annexation of Crimea and the start of the Russian-Ukrainian war in 2014, as well as Russia's full-scale aggression against Ukraine in 2022, which made it and NATO even more hostile to each other.
Despite the corruption, Russia accumulated a lot of funds from selling its natural resources during Putin's rule. It invested it in developing and producing new types of weapons, hoping to return to the global "arms race". Another critical point is that the USSR and the former post-Soviet countries, including Belarus and Ukraine, according to the pre-war data of the Stockholm International Institute for Research on Peace Problems, were always in the top twenty of the world's arms exporters, while Russia was in the top three. Even despite the significant reduction in arms exports from Russia to other countries due to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine and Western sanctions against it, the aggressor country remains one of the key global players in this market. It is precisely the geopolitical enmity with the NATO bloc and competition on the world arms export market that prompts Russian propaganda not only to praise its own "high-precision weapons" to which there are "no analogs" but also to downplay the combat qualities and capabilities of Western weapons used by Ukraine to repel Russian aggression.
"Ukraine will never be given the necessary equipment, and even if it is, it will not be enough"
The leading disinformation message of Russian agitational propaganda on the topic of Western weapons directed against Ukraine is that the alleged allies will never, ever provide Ukraine with certain types of weapons. An example of this was the case with heavy and self-propelled artillery, then with tanks and armored vehicles, then with fighter jets and long-range missiles.
Thus, one of the pro-Russian anonymous Telegram channels wrote in the summer of 2022: "Our source in the Office of the President of Ukraine (OP) said that the last conversation between the President of Ukraine and the Prime Minister of Great Britain was difficult, Johnson made it clear to Zelenskyy that the attitude of the West towards war will begin to change in the future. We should not wait for the promised tanks and planes; armed sabotage will increase, and equipment will be transferred individually to stabilize the front". As one can see, Western tanks are already helping the Defense Forces of Ukraine to destroy the Russian invaders, and our pilots are mastering American F-16 fighter jets.
Russians spread a similar story related to the transfer of long-range ATACMS missile systems from the USA to Ukraine. On October 10, 2023, the pro-Russian Telegram channel published the following post: "They [the USA] need it more. Biden's adviser, Sullivan, again refused to supply the Ukrainian military with ATACMS long-range missiles. Previously, the reason behind Biden's argument was that Russia would perceive the transfer of these missiles as an unacceptable escalation. Now, this argument was dropped from the advisor's words. However, the US missiles will not be given anyway. Because their provision to Ukraine "depletes the US stockpile at a time when these missiles will be needed in case of unforeseen circumstances: whether it is Iran, North Korea, or China. This music will be eternal..." Read more about the agitational propaganda’s reaction to the use of ATACMS missiles by the Armed Forces of Ukraine here. In exactly one week, Ukraine conducted the first attack with these missiles at the occupiers’ airfields in Berdyansk and Luhansk, destroying the enemy's aviation equipment.
Another slightly modified version emerges from this false Russian propaganda message. According to it, "the West transfers equipment to Ukraine, but the amount is too little to influence the course of hostilities and the war in general." For example, in the summer of 2022, the so-called "deputy minister of information" of the Russian occupation administration of the occupied territories of the Donetsk region, Danylo Bezsonov, said that the American HIMARS surface-to-air missile system was not enough to affect the course of the war seriously. Even if there were not many HIMARS rockets, it did not prevent them from playing a critical role in the liberation by the Defense Forces of Ukraine of the right-bank part of the Kherson region, including the regional center. With the help of these MLRS, it was possible to cut off the supply lines of the Russian occupying army and, under the threat of encirclement, force it to make the third significant "gesture of goodwill" on the territory of Ukraine.
Also, it is worth noting that the number of weapons transferred by the Western allies is a NATO-Ukraine military secret at the highest level of the army and political leadership, so it is unlikely that the figures announced publicly by both Western and Ukrainian media and Russian propagandists correspond to reality. It is a classic example of using the "fear, uncertainty, and doubt" propaganda tactic.
" Western technology is outdated and low-quality; it does not correspond to the Ukrainian realities"
The second key block of hostile propaganda messages regarding the weapons that the Western allies transfer to Ukraine is that they are allegedly outdated, technically unreliable, and not suitable for Ukraine’s climate. The last accusation sounds absurd since the climate of about half of the NATO countries is comparable to the Ukrainian one, and in some places, it is even colder. Enemy disinformers seem to copy theses from the Second World War: “They [Western vehicles] were designed for urban combat and the desert. In our reality, they can pass through, but with difficulties".
A higher average level of urbanization distinguishes NATO countries. It has a specific part of the equipment intended for war in the desert, but it is highly doubtful that it would transfer weapons to Ukraine that would not correspond to its climatic conditions. In addition, the Defense Forces of Ukraine fighters highly appreciate the Western equipment used in combat operations.
Russian agitational propaganda often contradicts itself, using the "opposite versions" propaganda tactic. For example, in one of the posts of the pro-Russian anonymous Telegram channel, the Bradley BMP is called poorly armored and has low survivability: "American M2 Bradley combat vehicles showed very modest "survivability" due to limited armor, although the problem was not so acute because of their primary role as an armored personnel carrier, not a wheeled tank". In another similar post, even Russian propagandists confirm the high level of survivability of the American BMPs: "At the same time, even after mines blew them up, most of the people inside survived with only minor injuries, but they could not single-handedly break through the Russian defense".
Russian propagandists resorted to manipulations related to characteristics of the French AMX-10RC wheeled tanks, which were transferred to Ukraine: "Ukrainian officers also complain about the limited capabilities of French armored vehicles on the front line. In particular, they considered the protection of the AMX-10RC wheeled tank to be insufficient (which threatens the crew when hit)". The Russian agitational propaganda deliberately "forgets" that this machine is not intended for breakthroughs in fortified areas and its primary function is high-speed reconnaissance.
Anonymous pro-Russian Telegram channels hint that Soviet equipment is superior to Western equipment but do not directly mention the Russian army: "Ukrainian military claim that the T series tanks, which are in Ukraine’s service, though old, are more reliable in battle than any foreign models". They also consider it an outstanding achievement and brag about the probable destruction of a lightly armored Swedish infantry fighting vehicle with a heavy 155 mm artillery projectile, which is an entirely disproportionate type of weaponry: "The Russian army knows the value of the CV90; therefore, it destroyed it with a rare high-precision Krasnopil-type guided projectile." The BMP was hit with one shot".
Therefore, Russians use the propaganda tactic of "depreciation" regarding Western weapons supplied to Ukraine. Agitational propaganda is trying with all its might to discredit the German Leopard-1 tanks supplied to Ukraine: "The New York Times writes that the German Leopard 1A5 tanks (Germany has transferred more than 100 such machines to Kyiv) are so outdated that German instructors had to resort to the help of soldiers from the Dutch and Danish armies, who used this model for a longer period, and even to the help of tankmen who studied in the 1980s and 1990s. No one knows how long this old piece of junk will last until it breaks down, but the tank is good; don't let it rot in a landfill!" These tanks are indeed far from new, but such statements sound especially odd, given that the Russian army has begun to deconserve and bring even older T-54 and T-55 machines to combat readiness. Agitational propaganda uses "third person" propaganda tactics referencing authoritative Western media.
" Unreliability in operation, repairing difficulties, and issues with logistics and components"
Another hostile propaganda thesis is that Western technology is allegedly unreliable in operation, often breaks down, and requires a complex chain of maintenance and repair. Pro-Russian anonymous Telegram channels publish posts with similar content with different information accents: "Our sources stated that after two months of its counteroffensive, the Armed Forces of Ukraine face huge issues with Western heavy equipment, which is massively failing. More than three hundred units are currently under repair, and some tanks and BMPs were not even involved in battles but broke down on training grounds. It was difficult for the General Staff to agree to the proposals that some machines would be allowed to be "donated", but this method does not solve the issue, and more and more equipment is being accumulated for repair".
Such statements are primarily fakes; the equipment of NATO countries can withstand even hits with anti-tank mines. Yet, Russian "latest weapons" are not distinguished by great survivability and often become a death trap for its own crews. In this case, the Russians used the "reflection" propaganda tactic. Moreover, Ukraine managed to establish the production of some components for Western weapons at Ukrainian enterprises and build a logistics chain for repairing damaged equipment, most of which is repaired directly on the front line.
Indeed, the great variety of Western equipment does not contribute to the simplicity and speed of its repair. Russian missile and drone attacks throughout Ukraine, which make it impossible for foreign companies to open repair stations in Ukraine, are also a problem. Equipment with complex damage has to be taken abroad for repair. However, Russian propaganda considerably saturates the colors on this issue and uses the "40 on 60" tactic, in which manipulative information is mixed with accurate information. Ukraine's government and international partners are doing everything possible to simplify the logistical chain of repairing Western equipment, and Ukrainian specialists learn to work with unfamiliar models right on the front line much faster and more skillfully than Russian agitational propaganda shows.
"Ukraine is a testing ground for advertising and PR to sell the well-proven Western weapons"
Another vital statement of Russian propaganda in the context of Ukraine's use of Western technology is that the territory of our country has allegedly turned into a large military test site for weapons tested by NATO countries and transnational corporations. Those samples that have successfully proven themselves increase in price and are being sold more successfully on the world arms markets: "The Western media began to openly discuss what we have always written about: "Ukraine is a large military training ground for Western military corporations." We wrote about this when discussing the PR of HIMARS and Bayraktar. Therefore, when transferring its new equipment, each country takes care of its actual usage and PR. We discussed how the Western military-industrial complex industry is profiting from the Ukrainian crisis".
According to the agitational propaganda version, only ordinary Ukrainians suffer from the status of a "military training ground": "Therefore, it is not surprising that American advisers, being in constant communication with the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, emphasize the defense of settlements and infrastructure facilities due to their transformation to strongholds using "human shields". Unfortunately, the most unenviable life of a simple Ukrainian suffers the most while the elites and transnational corporations earn billions". It is an example of how Russians used the "common people" propaganda tactics. Enemy disinformers, as always, deliberately "forget" that it was Russia that started an aggressive war on the territory of Ukraine and turned it into a military training ground. The Western allies supply Ukraine with military equipment exclusively for defense purposes. Such a propaganda tactic is called "scapegoating".
Agitational propaganda goes further in intimidating Ukrainians and predicts that Ukraine will become a "nuclear test site": "We must warn the people that the last stage of the Ukrainian crisis is the transformation of a simple military test site into a nuclear one. It can easily happen when the customer wants to raise the stakes in the game". Enemy propagandists did not hesitate to openly manipulate and twist the words of the former Minister of Defense of Ukraine, Oleksiy Reznikov, who allegedly admitted that Ukraine is a testing ground for Western military equipment. This statement was intended to encourage the allies to provide Ukraine with more weapons to repel Russian aggression and to test them in actual combat conditions.
