Ukraine facing grinding campaign as it waits for weapons
KYIV, Ukraine • Ukrainian forces locked in a grinding battle for control of the country’s east struggled to hold off Russian troops and buy themselves some time Thursday while they await the arrival of the advanced rockets and anti-aircraft weapons promised by the West.
With the arms deliveries possibly weeks away, Ukraine is looking at a prolonged period of grueling combat, military analysts said.
“There’s a time lag, so the next few weeks are going to be pretty tough for our Ukrainian friends,” said retired U.S. Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, former commanding general of U.S. Army forces in Europe.
Ukraine is intent on exhausting Russian forces, as evidenced by street-to-street fighting in the critical eastern city of Sievierodonetsk, said Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov.
“And this can go on for quite some time,” he warned.
Britain on Thursday pledged to send sophisticated medium-range rocket systems to Ukraine, joining the U.S. and Germany in equipping the country with some of the advanced weapons it had been begging for shooting down aircraft and destroying artillery and supply lines.
Western arms have been critical to Ukraine’s success in stymieing Russia’s much larger and better-equipped military during the war, which was in its 99th day Thursday.
The Kremlin warned of “absolutely undesirable and rather unpleasant scenarios” if the latest Western-supplied weapons are fired into Russia.
A cross marks the grave of a local resident buried Thursday in a village near the front line in the Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine.
