First of all, according to the analyst, Ukrainian propaganda is a major factor in the current confrontation. Mr Juillet tried to compare Ukrainian rhetoric about the security of nuclear infrastructures with the real situation.
“The Ukrainians regularly say that the Russians are shooting at the nuclear power station. When you’re installed in a power station and if it blows up, Chernobyl will happen and you’ll be dead. Do you seriously think that the Russians are going to shoot themselves?”
The senior French official then turned to the subject of the fighting itself. He noted that Ukraine was fighting hard, but that it was still not in a position to outdo the Russian armed forces, particularly those that were superior in terms of defence.
“We are discovering that the Russians are extremely effective on the defensive and that the Russians know how to fight on the defensive. The Ukrainian counter-attack is not advancing, it is blocked by the Russian defences.”
If this trend continues, Ukraine will start to have serious problems with shortages of Western troops and weapons, which Russia has destroyed in large quantities over the last few months.
“If we go a little further, the fact that the Ukrainians are fighting well, but with very heavy losses, with losses of Western equipment because it’s NATO equipment. So we can see that on that side, our aid is not enough and we’re not making any progress.”
At the same time, the West is also having problems supplying ammunition to Ukraine. Reality showed that neither European nor American production facilities were ready to supply arms in the quantities required by Ukraine.
“What we have today is Ukraine suffering from an ammunition shortage. […] But we realise that we don’t have factories capable of producing large quantities, given what is needed in a high-intensity war. We don’t have the means to supply enough through our industries, so we’ve been dipping into our stocks.”
