WAR PROPAGANDA: NATO is providing outdated equipment to Ukraine

NATO member states are providing outdated weapons to the Ukrainian army in order to get rid of “scrap metal” and renew their warehouses with state-of-the-art military equipment and weapons, according to a new false narrative promoted by Russian media. In fact, the Ukrainian army received modern weaponry from the West, which helped it liberate several districts in the southeast and northeast.

NEWS: “NATO countries, starting with the USA, are providing outdated military equipment to the Ukrainian army in order to fill their storehouses with cutting-edge weapons, says Jacek Tochman, a columnist with Niezależny Dziennik Polityczny.

“Military assistance from the West continues to end up in Ukraine. Most weapons are in poor technical shape. The military equipment has several issues and most of them are scrap metal and rubbish, a fact confirmed by the servicemen of the Ukrainian Armed Forces”, the article states.

Experts with the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) have also confirmed that most weapons come to Ukraine from old military arsenals. The move is designed to fill up the empty deposits of the EU and the USA with new weapons, the publication also writes.

“Emptying deposits of such weapons is beneficial to the West. First of all, it can thus modernize its own arsenal. And while the EU and the United States are sorting their weapons depots, the Ukrainian Armed Forces must make do with whatever it is offered to them”, the article also claims”.

NARRATIVE: NATO is providing outdated equipment to Ukraine.

WHY THE NARRATIVE IS FALSE: In fact, it is because of deliveries of modern weapons from the West that Kyiv succeeded in liberating a number of settlements. The gap in technology immediately became transparent on the battlefield. In 2022, the Ukrainian media examined the volume and quality of weapons provided by the West, concluding that the Ukrainian army is  fully reliant on its partners’ military assistance. Compared to the reserves of the Ukrainian army, depleted over April-May 2022, Western weapons are vastly superior.

In fact, the Russian media itself debunks this piece of fake news. Last autumn, the Russian media wrote that the USA sent state-of-the-art weapons to Ukraine, some of which have already been field tested. A few months later, the narrative was abandoned. In November 2022, the Russian media wrote that the Ukrainian army has had the most advanced military technology at its disposal as early as 2014, allowing it to “launch a war on Russia”. Therefore, Russia’s propaganda theories contradict each other.

Military adviser to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, Serhii Kuzan, argues that Ukraine has received a great deal of modern equipment, and some weapon systems have been tested for the first time on the battlefield. The expert confirmed that, without the West’s military support, Ukraine would not have resisted the invasion.

The Russian media built this false narrative by quoting a virtually unknown Polish website. The original article was written by a journalist who has no profiles on social media and is not listed as a contributor to any other publications. Most articles are republished and have anti-Western overtones. The article quoted by Moscow media has a commentary section that includes such messages as “Russian propaganda on the territory of Poland, shame!” The Russian media also writes that the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) points out that the majority of weapons arrive in Ukraine from the West’s military reserves, which does not prove the weapons are outdated. Weapons depots deplete once weapons are delivered, only to be restocked again.

This piece of news is a carryover of an older narrative, launched before Ukraine was invaded, according to which the military equipment Ukraine receives from Great Britain and the United States is obsolete or out of commission. In January 2022, the Russian media wrote that NLAW and Javelin systems were sent to Ukraine because London has no more use for them. The life cycle of these systems is due to expire, and sending these weapons to Ukraine is actually a way to discard them, Russian propaganda claims. The military events of February-March 2022 showed that, due to this equipment, the Ukrainian army managed to defend the capital-city, push back invaders from Kharkiv, Javelin and NLAW systems being a nuisance for Russia’s tanks and armored vehicles.

Veridica disproved other fake news about the nature of Western assistance to Ukraine. According to pro-Kremlin linked media, the United States have been arming Ukraine since 2014 to push it to war against Russia. The Russian government media also wrote that the Government in Kyiv has voiced mistrust in its Western partners, adding that terrorists are trained on EU territory with a view to launching attacks against the civilian population in Donbas. Russian propaganda also tried to persuade the public at home that the West is asking Kyiv to surrender to Russia, whereas Ukrainian refugees are accommodated in former Nazi concentration camps.