Ukraine makes fresh weapons appeal as top general warns country is on the brink
Ukraine has made a fresh appeal for weapons and ammunition to reach the front line after a top general warned that the country was on the brink.
Major-General Vadym Skibitsky, deputy chief of Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, warned that the fall of the key eastern city of Chasiv Yar was matter of time, after Russia stepped up its assault on the strategic stronghold.
“Not today or tomorrow, of course, but all depending on our reserves and supplies,” Major General Skibitsky said in an interview with The Economist, adding that he expected Russia would press on with a plan to capture all of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
“Our problem is very simple: we have no weapons,” he added. “They [Russia] always knew April and May would be a difficult time for us.”
He added that Russia was aiming to “take something” in time for Victory Day on 9 May, when the Kremlin stages huge military parades in the capital or in time for Vladimir Putin’s visit to Beijing the next week.
David Cameron with the Mayor of Ukraine’s eastern city of Lviv Andriy Sadovy and Head of the Lviv Regional Military Administration Maksym Kozytsky, walk down the central street of the city on 3 May (Photo: Stanislav Ivanov/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)
May would be the key month, he added, outlining what he said was a “three-layered” plan by Russia to destabilise Ukraine, involving a military push, a disinformation campaign to undermine mobilisation efforts and the government, and attempting to isolate Ukraine internationally. “They will be shaking things up whichever way they can,” he said.
Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian President, called on the UK to send weapons promised in a new military aid package “as soon as possible” after the Foreign Secretary promised a further £3bn of annual military aid for Ukraine, during a visit to Kyiv.
The Ukrainian foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, also pressed Lord Cameron on the issue, writing that the focus of talks with his UK counterpart was on “speeding up military aid”.
Russian troops near the Kremlin, during the Victory Day Parade rehearsals on 2 May in Moscow, Russia. The Red Square Victory Day Parade is scheduled on 9 May (Photo: Contributor/Getty Images)
The UK committed to sending £500m worth of support to war-torn Ukraine last month, including 1,600 strike and air defence missiles, 400 vehicles, and nearly four million rounds of small arms munitions.
Despite the US passing a $61bn aid bill for Ukraine last month, it is likely to take some time for much of the desperately needed ammunition and weapons to reach the front line.
Dr Kristian Gustafson, deputy director of Brunel University’s Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies, told i Ukraine had “lost the initiative” in the war. “[Ukraine] can only respond to Russian moves, and with increasingly poor force ratios.”
The Russian air force has been targeting Chasiv Yar intensively with glide bombs, artillery, and armoured vehicles in recent months, which analysts say suggests it could mount a full-scale attack soon. Chasiv Yar’s population has dwindled from 12,000 to just 700 as homes, offices and municipal buildings have been destroyed in the onslaught.
But Russia has stepped up its attacks on Ukraine in a bid to make progress before the support packages arrive. Dr Gustafson stressed that the Ukrainian army was in a “very poor” situation, as it struggles for manpower and armaments.
President Volodymyr Zelensky has called on Britain to send weapons promised in a new military aid package as soon as possible (Photo: Handout / Ukrainian presidential press service / AFP)
“The Ukrainians are in a manpower crunch, for sure,” he said. “They will struggle to pull units out of the line to retrain them for offensive operations.
But he added that Ukraine was “not yet on the brink” and that the increased ammunition sent from the US meant they “should be able to make the Russians bleed badly”.
He also downplayed the importance of Chasiv Yar, acknowledging it was “important” but “not decisive”. Losing Chasiv Yar would pave the way for Russia to push on towards Kostyantynovka, a strategic junction in Donetsk.
Read Next
Tensions rise in Europe as Ukrainians fatally stabbed in Germany
World
Tensions rise in Europe as Ukrainians fatally stabbed in Germany
Read More
From there, Russia could push northwards towards Kharkiv, or southwards towards Andiivka, he said.
Russia’s military has in part had more success after it refocused its military goals, by “adopting a strategy of achieving local dominance, focusing on a single objective and marshalling superior force there”, Dr Gustafson said.
In an interview with The Times, Ukraine’s commander of its ground forces, Lieutenant General Oleksandr Pavliuk, said Ukraine expected Russia to concentrate on the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk in 2024.
“Russia’s main goal remains to destroy Ukraine as a nation,” he said. “But […] we believe the goals the Russians set for themselves this year are the complete occupation of Donetsk and Luhansk regions and, if they are successful there, the Zaporizhzhia region.”
The Kremlin, meanwhile, hit out at Lord Cameron and the French President, Emmanuel Macron, for their comments about providing military support to Ukraine.
Mr Macron repeated an earlier comment saying that he would not rule out sending troops to Ukraine, while Lord Cameron said on Thursday that Ukraine had a right to use weapons provided by Britain to strike targets inside Russia, and that it was up to Kyiv whether to do so.
“Ukraine has that right. Just as Russia is striking inside Ukraine, you can quite understand why Ukraine feels the need to make sure it’s defending itself,” he said.
Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for the Kremlin, said the comments were “very dangerous”, accusing Britain and France of causing “a direct escalation of tensions” around the war in Ukraine.