A Ukrainian lieutenant commanded an artillery unit from a firing position on the Eastern Front, relying on M777 howitzer provided by the United States and other artillery, as U.S. lawmakers gathered in Washington to decide whether his cannons would be forced to cease fire due to lack of ammunition.
But when the lieutenant returned to base Saturday night, he got the news he and millions of Ukrainians had been praying to hear.
“As soon as I entered the building after my shift, these people told me that the aid plan for Ukraine had finally been approved by Congress,” the lieutenant said. “We hope this aid package will reach us as soon as possible.”
After months of costly delays, U.S. lawmakers decided to resume military aid, bringing collective relief and expressions of gratitude to battered and bloody Ukraine. Soldiers and civilians say it may come too late, but U.S. support means more than bullets and bombs.
It offers something equally important: hope.
$60 billion military aid program House approval is expected to go to the Senate for a vote and President Biden’s signature as early as Tuesday. The Pentagon said weapons deliveries to Ukraine could resume within days through a well-established logistics network.
Although the Pentagon has not announced the specific contents of the first aid package, the United States has provided most of the ammunition most urgently needed by the Ukrainian army, including artillery shells and precision rockets for long-range strikes.
Ukrainian officials said it could also help replenish Ukraine’s short- and medium-range air defense systems, including missiles capable of intercepting Russian ballistic missiles that are having a devastating impact on Ukraine’s energy grid.
Some items, such as artillery shells, may arrive relatively quickly, but Ukrainian commanders and military analysts warn it will take weeks for U.S. aid to start having a direct impact on the fighting.
“Thus, the situation on the frontline is likely to continue to deteriorate in the meantime, especially if the Russian military takes advantage of the limited window before new U.S. aid arrives to step up attacks,” said analysts at the Institute for War Research in Washington, a U.S.-based research group. Written on the weekend.
Lieutenant Oleksandr said the Russians recently seemed determined to commit as many resources as possible to the fight as quickly as possible to take advantage of Ukraine’s depleted arsenal.
“The Russians spare no effort, whether it’s blank ammunition or artillery,” he said. “Each of our cannons can fire up to two or three lancets in a day, and one lancet costs more than the cannon itself,” he said, referring to Russia’s most advanced drones one.
Franz-Stefan Gadi, a consulting senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said that even with U.S. assistance, the air defense situation “will remain challenging in the coming months” and Russia will seek to exploit its advantages. However, he said renewed U.S. aid would allow European countries to increase their own weapons production, which would become increasingly important given the uncertain political climate surrounding the U.S. presidential election.
Retired Australian Army Major General Mick Ryan, a fellow at the Lowy Institute in Sydney, wrote that replenishing air defense systems and artillery would be Ukraine’s top priority, but the bill allows for other critical and less obvious project support. They include “spare parts for American tanks and armored vehicles, drones, mortars, radios, engineering equipment and the full range of equipment required on a modern battlefield,” he wrote.
Since the United States stopped providing aid to Ukraine this year, Russia has seized more than 360 square kilometers (approximately 139 square miles) of landAccording to the Institute of War Studies.
As Ukraine is forced to turn defensive, Russia’s arsenal is bolstered by missiles and drones from Ukraine. Iran and North Koreawhile Chinese support has helped Moscow mitigate the impact of sanctions and helped the Kremlin shift its economy to a wartime footing.
Russia has also successfully evacuated more than 315,000 troops killed or wounded in combat, according to U.S. officials.
Gen. Christopher Cavoli, commander of U.S. European Command, said in 2017 that Russian forces were now 15 percent larger than when they invaded Ukraine. testify to congress before voting on Saturday.
“In the past year, Russia has increased its frontline troops from 360,000 to 470,000,” he said. Ukrainian officials have warned that Russia is preparing for a larger offensive in late spring or early summer.
While Russia has so far failed to exploit Ukraine’s shortfalls in personnel and weapons to achieve a major breakthrough, military analysts warn they could still make significant progress in the coming weeks.
Russian troops continued their advance west of the city of Avdiivka on Saturday, surrounding Lieutenant Oleksandar’s firing position. They also attacked the strategically important Chasiv Yar hilltop fortress in eastern Ukraine, taking advantage of a widening gap in Kiev’s empty air defenses to destroy Ukrainian defenses with one-ton bombs dropped by warplanes capable of flying close to the front lines.
The largest urban agglomeration in the Donbass region under Ukrainian control would be under threat if the Kremlin’s forces were able to seize crucial high ground in the region.
Meanwhile, Russia continues to attack towns across the country with long-range drones and missiles, leveling homes, port infrastructure and energy facilities.
Ukraine’s allies say they are racing to find more advanced air defense systems, such as the U.S.-made Patriot air defense systems located across Europe, to help Kyiv, but Ukrainians want Moscow to try to inflict as much damage as possible before the systems arrive.
As they have done day after day for more than two years, rescue workers raced from Odessa on the Black Sea to Sumy, near Ukraine’s northern border with Russia, to pull people from the rubble of bombed-out buildings as the House of Representatives voted Saturday. rescued.
“But this day is still a little different,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an address to the nation on Saturday night. “Today, we received the long-awaited decision: the U.S. support package we have been working towards.”
Zelensky said the impact would soon be felt “by our fighters on the front lines and in the cities and villages hit by Russian terror.”
The Kremlin responded with snarls and fury as U.S. lawmakers said they were orchestrating a sophisticated campaign to shape U.S. public opinion and undermine support for Ukraine.
Former President and Deputy Chairman of the Kremlin Security Council Dmitry Medvedev, issue a statement He “sincerely” hopes that the United States will “fall into a new civil war as soon as possible.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitri S. Peskov explain Military aid will only lead to the “destruction” of Ukraine. He warned that the United States “will have to answer for it” if a provision in the legislation that would allow the U.S. to seize billions of dollars in assets frozen by Russia’s central bank to pay for Ukraine’s reconstruction is adopted.
Lieutenant Colonel Oleksii Khilchenko, a 30-year-old commander of a Ukrainian brigade fighting around Robtan on the southern front, said the new weapons would allow Ukrainians to fight “harder and braver” .
“This support from the American community will save the lives of our soldiers and support them across the front lines,” he said. “We will use this assistance to strengthen our military and end this war – which Russia must lose. This war.”
The House vote also boosted morale among the army of volunteers who helped maintain Ukrainian soldiers throughout the war.
“Today is a great day,” said Olena Detsel, founder of the volunteer organization. three person canoeto raise funds for the urgent needs of soldiers, including helping those who have lost limbs in combat receive medical treatment in the United States.
“The news of financial support from the United States is a breath of fresh air,” she said in a text message. “It helps us understand that we are not alone in this fight.”
Liubov Sholudko contributed reporting.
