Taras Chmut said Europe sees the war in Ukraine as “a war for the poor.” He means that Europeans (and Western partners in general) have top-tier planes, fleets, precision weapons, and the newest tanks, so they don’t get that, quote, “you don’t need the best equipment [...] you need enough equipment in the right quantities.”I don’t fully agree. Yes, they really don’t understand. But mainly because they don’t want to.I speak with partners from other countries often, both as head of the Public Anti-Corruption Council at the Defense Ministry and as a private person, and I see clearly that most of them (not all!) are willfully blind to anything that could shatter their comfortable world.They spent decades preparing for a different kind of war. The kind they got used to: where the enemy wears torn sneakers, rides a desert-colored donkey, and carries an RPG-7 from a Soviet RPK. That’s not the war they’ll get. Our war will reach them. With drones and front-door murders carried out through hacked apps. With burning cities and the buzz of Shaheds. With trenches, nets, and razor wire. A war that looks more like World War I, the one they want to forget.And admitting this means they'd have to change too much.Bring back conscription.Spend billions on weapons, not welfare.Exit treaties.Lose approval ratings, public trust, and most of all, peace of mind.They’d lose that peace of mind wondering where the nearest bomb shelter is. Whether their daughter knows how to use a tourniquet. Whether it’s really that far from Kyiv or Pokrovsk to Vienna or Paris. What death sounds like when it comes for you. What water tastes like after a day under armor in the scorching sun.And they don’t want that. They don’t want to think about it.So they keep preparing for a war that works for them. A war they’re comfortable thinking about. One far away. Like in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and other distant places.That’s why we see headlines like “U.S. Army drops grenade from drone for the first time (!)” or that new Abrams tank instructions now recommend shooting drones with the main gun. Because it’s easier to tweak a fantasy than face reality. It’s better than nothing, but it won’t save you from what’s coming.In one of the final Harry Potter books, Voldemort has already returned, with credible witnesses. But the Minister of Magic still refuses to believe it, because it would shatter his world. He never thought he could do this.Ministers of Magic still come to Kyiv sometimes. And then they go home and shut their eyes again.SourceAbout the author. Yuriy Hudymenko, military officer, head of the NGO "Ukrainian Association "Mriya", expert of the Temporary Special Commission on Support for Enslaved Nations of the Russian FederationThe editorial staff does not always share the opinions expressed by the blog authors.