Ukraine's armed forces urgently need more American weapons, including long-range missiles, to contain the Russian advance and stop attacks from Crimea, otherwise they will be forced to "retreat, step by step." It is Volodymyr Zelensky, in an interview with the Washington Post, who launches yet another appeal to his main sponsor. The message is aimed at Joe Biden, but above all at the Republican deputies of Congress, who continue to block the 60 billion in new military aid: "We have lost six months", is the complaint of the Ukrainian leader, who in a situation of objective difficulty on the conflict front it continues to revolutionize security leaders. The last head to fall was that of his first advisor.
Zelensky's requests to Washington, as always, are detailed, but take on increasingly heartfelt tones day after day, to the extent that Russian forces continue to make the most of their superiority in men and equipment.
“If you need 8,000 shots a day to defend the front line but you only have 2,000, you have to do less,” the Ukrainian president explained, adding that “if there is no US support, it means no we have air defense, Patriot missiles, electronic warfare jammers, 155 millimeter artillery shells." And then there is the age-old issue of Atacms, which the Americans are reluctant to provide for fear that Kiev will use them to attack on Russian territory, fueling an escalation. Zelensky, on this issue, assured that long-range missiles would be used to hit airports in Crimea and prevent enemy raids launched from the occupied peninsula. With new armaments, it is the assessment, we can aim to "keep the front stable" and allow Ukraine to "arm and train new brigades in the rear to conduct a new counter-offensive by the end of the year". And the topic of military supplies was also addressed by the defense ministers of the two countries, Rustem Umerov and Lloyd Austin, in a telephone conversation.
In recent weeks Kiev has looked with concern at the resumption of the initiative by the Russians, who after conquering Avdivka (one of the most fiercely contested towns in Donbass) resumed the offensive in grand style in the south-east and north, returning to also target Kharkiv.
And carrying out massive bombings of energy infrastructure across the country, as in the winter of last year. The Ukrainians, to ease the pressure, targeted border regions such as Belgorod, where thousands of Russians were forced to evacuate. But these were essentially "limited operations", Zelensky noted. “To repel the Russians, we need more weapons, otherwise we will retreat, in small steps,” is the warning.
The Ukrainian leader is now constantly under pressure from an exhausting and interminable conflict, and the continuous purge within his entourage is a clear signal in this direction. This time the first advisor to the president, Serhii Shefir, and two deputies of the chief of staff Andriy Yermak lost their jobs. Just a few days ago, one of the most powerful men in Kiev, the head of the National Security and Defense Council Oleksiy Danilov, was sacked. Before that, and with much more noise, the head of the armed forces Valery Zaluzhny. The general, no longer aligned with Zelensky's narrative of a total victory within reach, had paid for the failure of the counteroffensive against the Russians launched last spring, which should have reversed the course of the conflict.
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