Ukraine’s need for more weapons major focus as defense ministers meet

Reuters: –

Dozens of defense ministers from NATO and other parts of the world are expected to discuss weapon deliveries to Ukraine on Wednesday in Brussels, U.S. officials said, as Kyiv calls for a significant increase in arms to help hold off Russian troops in eastern Ukraine.

The battle for Sievierodonetsk – a city of barely more than 100,000 people before the war – is now the biggest fight in Ukraine as the conflict has shifted into a punishing war of attrition.

Ukraine needs 1,000 howitzers, 500 tanks and 1,000 drones among other heavy weapons, presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said on Monday. Western countries have promised NATO-standard weapons – including advanced U.S. rockets. But deploying them is taking time, and Ukraine will require consistent Western support to transition to new supplies and systems as stocks dwindle of their Soviet-era weapons and munitions.

The meeting on Wednesday on the sidelines of a NATO defense ministerial is being led by U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and the third time the group of nearly 50 countries are meeting to discuss and coordinate assistance to Ukraine. The previous in-person meeting was at Ramstein Air Base in Germany in April.

“Russia has not given up on the fight, despite its pretty anemic progress… What we have is this grinding, slow, incremental Russian operation,” a senior U.S. defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said.