Kyiv, Ukraine. Ukraine’s president and foreign secretary pressured British Foreign Secretary David Cameron on Friday to speed up the delivery of promised military aid to kyiv, as Russia increases battlefield pressure on depleted forces. Ukrainians in the third year of war.
“It is important that the weapons included in the UK support package announced last week arrive as soon as possible,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on social platform X, as Cameron visited kyiv on Thursday.
He said armored vehicles, ammunition and missiles of various types topped the list.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, who also met Cameron, said on X that the focus was on “accelerating military aid.”
That message was reiterated by the deputy head of Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, Maj. Gen. Vadym Skibitsky, who said Russia is trying to exploit its current advantage in arms and manpower and is planning a major offensive this summer.
“Our problem is very simple: we don’t have weapons,” Skibitsky said in an interview with The Economist published Friday.
Vital support promised by Western allies to help Ukraine defend itself from Kremlin forces has been delayed by political disagreements in the United States and a lack of manufacturing capacity in Europe. That has opened a door to advances for the larger and better-equipped Russian military, especially along the front line in eastern Ukraine.
Ukraine and its Western partners are in a race against time to deploy new military aid, especially a fresh batch of American support, in the coming weeks and prevent Russia from gaining further ground.
The pressing concern right now is keeping the strategic eastern hilltop town of Chasiv Yar out of Russia’s reach. Capturing the city would offer Russia the opportunity to attack other key cities further within the Donetsk region and attack important Ukrainian supply lines.
Chasiv Yar is under attack by Russian artillery, drones and missiles. Glider bombs have also been deployed. They are half-ton bombs fitted with wings and dropped from planes from behind Russian lines. They knock down buildings and leave huge craters, making local defenders nervous.
Russia used a similar strategy of relentless bombing to force Ukrainian troops out of Avdiivka in February.
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