Repairing Damaged Ukrainian Military Hardware 'Would Be Nightmare' for West

Hundreds of Western-made Ukrainian armored vehicles have already been damaged or destroyed by Russian forces amid Kiev’s counteroffensive, which continues to show no signs of succeeding.

The US and its allies’ "main effort" for Ukraine is currently shifting from delivering military hardware to “repairing and sustaining” it, an American media outlet has reported.

The outlet cited the Pentagon’s acquisition and sustainment chief, William LaPlante, as saying that the US Department of Defense (DoD) is now in the process of setting up repair facilities in Europe.

"We're translating [training and repair] manuals, we have to do much more together so there’s going to be more of a focus on that" by partner nations, LaPlante, who is also at the helm of a working group to deal with repairing damaged Ukrainian military equipment, added.

The outlet noted in this vein that "while the sustainment working group has made strides, the realities of national politics and government bureaucracy also have a say."

As an example, the outlet mentioned a botched plan by Berlin and Warsaw to create a joint repair center in Poland for Ukrainian Leopard 2 tanks. The plan reportedly fell apart due to disagreements over the cost of the work, “leaving some damaged tanks to sit unused as they await repair.”

“There's so much [damaged Ukrainian] equipment that is lying around on the battlefield that will probably be repaired on the one hand. And they've got stockpiles of it and they don't know what to do with it,” Michael Maloof, a former senior security policy analyst in the Office of the US Secretary of Defense, told Sputnik.

According to him, this reflects “the most obvious” problem that the US is “running low on new equipment to get to the destination.”

“But I perceive that there will be other nightmares as a result of trying to come up with repair stations and moving the damaged equipment in and out of locations, the costs for repairs, [and] the availability of parts,” Maloof pointed out.

He warned that tackling these issues might prove difficult given that “Ukraine relies almost entirely on different types of equipment from different countries coming into the country”.

When asked how feasible for Western countries would be to synchronize all the processes related to repairing the damaged Ukrainian military equipment, the ex-­NATO analyst said that “the process would be a nightmare.”

He recalled that “there already are disagreements in servicing certain equipment, including German-made Leopard tanks. Maloof said that Kiev’s Western partners “are coming up with a reasonable contract to not only service them, but also repair them. I understand that the first contract did not work out, so they've had to look for alternative sources.”

According to him, “This adds further complication to the already very complex problem. And it just isn't going to go away. It's going to get more and more problematic for the Ukrainians because they cannot begin to match what the Russians can throw into the fight. And I think not withstanding what NATO and the US is already providing and them adding this logistical repair nightmare on top of it - that all is just another layer of problems. So it's very, very problematic.”

Maloof also recalled that the US is already “scurrying around the world trying to find available equipment or some of this equipment that's been sent into Ukraine”, something that he said “has to be done without jeopardizing the readiness of forces in other parts of the world.”

“Already, the [US] Navy is feeling the pinch with some of its type of equipment that it's had to send to Ukraine. So there are consequences to every decision that's made. And this all has to be weighed very carefully. And right now, it doesn't seem to be an end to it,” he concluded.

The remarks come after a US newspaper quoted unnamed American and European officials as saying last week that in the first two weeks of Ukraine's counteroffensive, up to 20% of the weapons Kiev sent to the battlefield were destroyed or damaged, including tanks and armored vehicles that Ukrainians planned to use in the advance on Russian positions.

This was preceded by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu saying that since the beginning of Ukraine's counteroffensive, Russia has destroyed 21 Ukrainian aircraft, five helicopters, some 1,244 tanks, 914 pieces of special vehicles, two air defense systems, and 25 multiple launch rocket system (MLRS) vehicles.

Shoigu added that Kiev had failed to achieve its counteroffensive-related goals in all directions, losing roughly 26,000 servicemen.

The US and its allies ramped up their military supplies to Kiev shortly after Russia launched its special military operation in Ukraine. Moscow has repeatedly warned countries sending weapons to Ukraine that it sees these military shipments as legitimate targets. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, for his part, stressed that NATO allies arming and training Ukrainians is tantamount to a direct involvement in the conflict.