The message to US lawmakers from Ukraine’s first lady, delivered amid stark and graphic images of civilian bloodshed, could not have been clearer: Almost five full months since Russia began its invasion, Olena Zelenska said her country was needs more western weapons.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky sent her to Washington to address the US Congress directly on air defense systems.
Wednesday’s call came as Russia hinted that it plans to seize wider areas beyond the industrial region of eastern Ukraine known as Donbas, with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stressing that Moscow also claims Kherson Oblast and part of Zaporozhye and will “continuously and tenaciously’ extends its gains elsewhere.
Billions of dollars in Western military aid are critical to Ukraine’s efforts to repel Russian attacks, but officials in Kyiv say the numbers are still too small to turn the tide of the war.
See what Ukraine has received so far:
HIMARS ROCKET LAUNCHER
US-supplied HIMARS systems and similar M270s from Britain have greatly enhanced the Ukrainian military’s precision strike capability.
The HIMARS and M270 have longer range, much better accuracy and a faster rate of fire than the Soviet Smerch, Uragan and Tornado multiple rocket launcher systems used by both Russia and Ukraine.
The truck-mounted HIMARS launchers fire GPS-guided missiles capable of hitting targets up to 80 kilometers (50 miles) away, a distance that puts them beyond the range of most Russian artillery systems. Mobile launchers are difficult for the enemy to spot and can quickly change position after firing to avoid airstrikes.
The Ukrainian military has so far received a dozen HIMARS and several M270 systems, but has already used them to successfully attack Russian ammunition and fuel depots in eastern Ukraine that are essential to support Moscow’s offensive. On Wednesday, Ukrainian forces reportedly used HIMARS to strike a strategic bridge in the Russian-occupied southern region of Kherson.
“The HIMARS hardly had a break during the day or at night. Their potential has been used to the maximum,” Ukrainian military expert Oleg Zhdanov told The Associated Press. “The results were impressive. Over 30 important Russian targets have been hit with high accuracy in the past two weeks.
U.S. officials have so far refrained from providing Ukraine with longer-range HIMARS launchers, which can reach targets up to 300 kilometers (186 miles) away, allowing the military to strike areas deep inside Russian territory.
HEAVY ARTILLERY
Ukraine has received deliveries of more than 200 heavy artillery systems from the US and its NATO allies. These include the American M777, the French CAESAR, the German PzH 2000, and several other long-range towed and self-propelled artillery systems.
Western howitzers have some advantages over the older Soviet systems in the Russian and Ukrainian arsenals, but it takes time for Ukrainian crews to learn how to operate them. Their wide assortment poses obvious logistical challenges.
“Ukraine has been given a huge amount of … artillery equipment that is very diverse,” said Michael Coffman, an expert on the Russian military and program director at the Virginia-based think tank CNA. “What they’ve ended up with is a zoo of artillery, and it’s very difficult to do maintenance, support and logistics.”
A more serious problem is that the number of Western weapons is still too small.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podoliak said last month that the country needs at least 1,000 heavy howitzers, 300 rocket launchers, 500 tanks and 2,000 armored vehicles – far more than the West has provided.
“Western weapons are superior to Soviet-era counterparts, but their numbers are too few to turn the tide of the war,” Zhdanov said.
ARMOR
Ukraine has asked the West for more armor to replenish its heavy losses on the battlefield. The country has reportedly received over 300 Soviet T-72 tanks from Poland and the Czech Republic and has already used them in combat.
However, the long-promised delivery of Germany’s Leopard tanks has been delayed, a delay that has sparked an angry reaction in Ukrainian media and social media.
Ukraine received several hundred armored personnel carriers from the US and several NATO allies, a motley collection of vehicles that has not fully compensated for what it has already lost.
Western allies also provided Ukraine with a large number of man-portable anti-tank weapons, which played a key role in helping Ukrainian soldiers destroy Russian armored convoys.
THE DRONES
Early in the war, Ukraine made extensive use of its inventory of Turkish-made Bayraktar TB-2 laser-guided bomb-dropping drones to hit long convoys of Russian troops and supply columns. However, the Bayraktars have become less effective in the face of denser Russian air and electronic defenses in eastern Ukraine.
Since the start of the war, the US and Western allies have deployed hundreds of other drones, including an unspecified number of Switchblade 600 “kamikaze” drones that carry tank-piercing warheads and use artificial intelligence to track targets. But their range is limited and they can only stay in the air for about 40 minutes.
Ukraine is pushing hard for more advanced, long-range drones that can withstand radio jamming and GPS jamming and rely on satellite communications for control and navigation.
AIR DEFENSE SYSTEMS
The US and other NATO allies have provided Ukraine with more than 2,000 man-portable air defense missile systems, or MANPADS, such as Stingers and other similar weapons.
Such compact systems are effective against attack helicopters and low-flying aircraft, and the Ukrainian military has used them to inflict significant losses on the Russian Air Force, limiting its ability to provide close air support to ground forces and helping to slow the pace of Moscow’s offensive.
At the same time, Ukraine has pushed the West to supply it with medium- and long-range air defense systems that could shoot down cruise missiles and high-flying aircraft.
It has received several Soviet S-300 air defense systems from Slovakia, the type of weapon that the Ukrainian military has long used.
The US also promised to give Ukraine two medium-range NASAMS air defense systems.
Germany promised to supply Ukraine with 30 Gepard self-propelled anti-aircraft guns, but they have not yet arrived.
WAR PLANES
Since the invasion began on February 24, Ukraine has called on Western allies to provide it with fighter jets to challenge Russia’s air superiority.
However, the US and its allies are reluctant to give Ukraine the fighter jets it has requested, fearing it would provoke an escalating response from Moscow, which has warned NATO that supplying Ukraine with fighter jets could be tantamount to joining the conflict .
In March, the Pentagon rejected Poland’s offer to hand over its Soviet MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine by transferring them through a US base in Germany, citing a high risk of provoking an escalation between Russia and NATO. Ukraine has its own fleet of MiG-29s, but it is unclear how many of these and other aircraft are still in service.
Earlier this month, Slovakia announced an intention to provide its MiG-29 fleet to Ukraine as it awaits delivery of US F-16 fighter jets, but no action has been taken.
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