THE Gaza crisis is reducing resources intended for the war in Ukraine, according to former British Army commander Colonel Richard Kemp.
He told GB News: “Not only is it distracting attention, it’s also deflecting resources, particularly American resources.
“As we know, there are two US carrier strike groups in the eastern Mediterranean and undoubtedly some of the resources they’re using would have been, and other US assets, directed towards helping Ukraine, particularly in terms of surveillance.
“But in addition to that, the Americans have delivered and continue to deliver a significant amount of munitions to Israel, some of which are artillery shells which Israel may need either in Gaza or if it has to carry out an offensive into Lebanon, some of which were earmarked for Ukraine.”
Speaking to Michael Portillo, he continued: “Indeed, large American stockpiles of ammunition earlier this year were sent to Ukraine from Israel. They’d been placed in Israel for this eventuality and went to Ukraine.
“Now, some of that is coming back to Israel and in addition to that, I think one of the one of the important factors is that, as we know, one of the political elements, particularly on the right in the United States of America, is opposed to continued US support to Ukraine.
“I’ve already seen some evidence of it, that some of those people are saying it’s essential we support Israel and this is the reason why we can’t support Ukraine, because Israel needs our support more than Ukraine does.
“And so I think that’s having an effect and will have a future effect on US support in Ukraine.”
Asked if US president Joe Biden would now push for a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, he said: “Well, I think that was always on Biden’s agenda.
“From my reading of it, he was always intending to push Ukraine into coming to some kind of accommodation with Russia.”
