Western military aid is reaching Ukrainian soldiers on the front line, but not at a scale that enables Ukraine to challenge Russia’s artillery advantage.Ukrainian troops in Vovchansk, in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, told The Telegraph that ammunition had started to reach their lines after the long US aid hiatus ended, but that they were still being outmatched by Russia.”If we use 10 shells, they send 50 back,” one artillery gunner told The Telegraph.”Even if we receive the shells, our artillery barrels are old and worn out.”
Russia started a new offensive in Kharkiv last month, and it has become one of the most intense areas of fighting, particularly because it is close to the border, which allows Russia to easily resupply and launch attacks.The Telegraph’s report suggests that the new supplies for Ukraine come from the US, where weaponry supplies to Ukraine have restarted after a six-month hiatus after Republicans stalled further assistance.Ukraine has been receiving military aid from its allies throughout Russia’s full-scale invasion, which started in February 2022.
But Russia is larger and has more resources, meaning that Ukrainian units have often been at a disadvantage.Western aid has often come in fits and starts, too, as Ukraine’s allies debate what and how much to give, leaving soldiers on the front lines struggling with shortages over different periods.While the overall European contribution to Ukraine has been higher than what the US has given, the US has been its single largest donor, and the absence of its support was strongly felt on the battlefield.Ukraine’s soldiers said this year, as US support remained stalled, that they had to ration supplies, sometimes being unable to go after targets that they had identified.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in April that Russia had 10 times as many artillery shells as Ukraine.While some new weaponry from the US has already reached Ukrainian soldiers, getting supplies to Ukraine takes time.It’s unclear how much aid is expected to reach the soldiers in Kharkiv, or when it would arrive.Washington DC-based think tank the Institute for the Study of War warned in an update this week that “Russian forces are attempting to make tactically and operationally significant gains before US military assistance arrives to Ukrainian forces at the frontline at scale.”It concluded that “the initial arrival of Western-provided weaponry will take some time to have tactical to operational effect on the frontline.”
