As Ukraine Prepares Counteroffensive, Allies Promise Weapons Will Be Delivered

Ukraine's allies appear to be affirming that it will get whatever it needs. JL 

Marc Santora and colleagues report in the New York Times:

As Ukraine prepares its forces for a long-anticipated counteroffensive aimed at driving out invading Russian forces, the United States defense chief vowed to “fully and quickly” provide weapons that are needed. Given the vast expenditure of ammunition by both armies on a daily basis, military analysts have said the side that can win the race to rearm in the coming months will have an advantage on the battlefield in the next phases of the war. “I’m confident that we will continue to step up to meet Ukraine’s needs into the spring and well beyond.”

As Ukraine prepares its forces for a long-anticipated counteroffensive aimed at driving out invading Russian forces, the United States defense chief vowed on Wednesday to “fully and quickly” provide weapons that are needed “at a crucial time in the course of Ukraine’s fight for freedom.”

Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III, speaking before a meeting with defense officials from more than 50 countries supporting Kyiv, said the allies “must provide Ukraine with the full capabilities for the fight ahead.”

“I’m confident that we will continue to step up to meet Ukraine’s needs into the spring and well beyond,” he said.

The intensity of the battles in Ukraine has strained the production capacities of the West and Moscow. Both Russian and Ukrainian soldiers have complained that they do not have enough ammunition to keep up with the pace of fighting.

The Kremlin has stepped up its effort to put Russia’s economy on a wartime footing, even as President Vladimir V. Putin insists his country engaged only in a “special military operation.” The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based research body, said this week that Mr. Putin had announced “a series of reforms to attract more specialists to work at military production plants, including the reallocation of federal assets to housing and increasing pay.”

The continuing carnage in the battle for Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine is the most vivid illustration of the toll the war is taking on both resources and fighters. Both sides have suffered heavy casualties in the monthslong fight for control of the city and Ukrainian medics say they are struggling to treat the dozens of soldiers wounded there every day.

In addition to efforts to source more ammunition and weapons, both Ukraine and Russia are also seeking to grow the ranks of their fighters. Thousands of Ukrainian soldiers are training abroad, being taught NATO-style military tactics and how to use newly arriving Western equipment. They are expected to enter the fight in the coming months.

The Ukrainian interior minister, Ihor Klymenko, said Kyiv had also already accepted 28,000 applications for new volunteer “assault units” that would bolster the National Guard. “We have already started training almost all units at the training areas of our country,” he told reporters last week.

Moscow, which has resisted announcing a second wave of mobilization, plans to start a spring recruitment drive in April, according to Russian media reports.

Given the vast expenditure of ammunition by both armies on a daily basis, military analysts have said the side that can win the race to rearm in the coming months will have an advantage on the battlefield in the next phases of the war.