The West in general and Belgium in particular urgently need to step up their defence efforts says retired general Marc Thys. Speaking on VRT TV the former top brass said :"If war breaks out here today, the Belgian army will have to start throwing stones after just a few hours, because we will have run out of ammunition."
Retd general Thys warns Belgian soldiers will have to “throw stones” if ammunition shortage is not sorted
Colin Clapson
Published:
The situation on the front in Ukraine is at a deadlock and that Thys says is also bad news for the West. "If Ukraine does not get clear support from Europe and the United States, they are in a very bad position," he notes. "Russia, meanwhile, has mobilised an additional 150,000 people and their economy has been geared towards war for years."
The Poles don’t believe the war will be limited to Ukraine. The Poles maintain NATO still has 3 years to prepare for a possible attack by Russia. Thys fears the Poles could well be right. "Three years seems correct to me," he says. The West and that incudes Belgium urgently need to do more work on defence.
Thys says there is a huge shortage of ammunition, which would mean the Belgian army would have expended all ammunition in less than a day. "I had 15 million euros a year with which to buy ammunition. In the meantime this has been increased to 150 million euros. If we want to be able to fight for 30 to 60 days, we need 5 to 7 billion euros."
But is the Russian threat serious? Thys says many analysts and politicians make the mistake of only looking at Ukraine. "We see it as an individual fact, while things are also happening elsewhere in the world. In the Sahel region of Africa, western countries have been ejected by Russia. Russia and China have a certain vision of the world order and it is a world not led by Europe and the US."
Thys warns of "forces" operating in the West. He does not want to call it a fifth column but stresses the need to be vigilant. "In France, it was proved that Marine Le Pen was supported by Russia. If you see how certain parties visit Syria or the Kremlin. Some people don't really realise where their support is coming from."
"Our military intelligence service, the ADIV, and the state security service say we have to be on the lookout for interference in our elections. We should not be naive."