'..Mr. Putin’s strategic goal—seizing Kyiv and eliminating Ukraine as a sovereign state—remains unchanged .. Officials in the West have been cautious—analysts such as Gen. Hodges and Mr. Herbst say too cautious—about increasing support for Ukraine..''..Ukraine’s fate will largely depend on how fast and in what quantities these heavy weapons arrive .. Russia still enjoys a significant superiority over Ukraine in artillery and armor. Ukrainian forces estimate that they have one artillery piece per 10 to 20 Russian ones on the front lines, with each of these guns allotted only a fraction of the ammunition at the Russian gunners’ disposal. As a result, every day that Western heavy-weapons supplies are delayed is measured in hundreds of Ukrainian casualties, they say.
..
“In this war, the victory will be with the side that has more and better weapons. And, if Ukraine doesn’t obtain enough weapons in time, it will bleed out,” said Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister.
..
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that the war won’t end until Russia withdraws from all the territories it occupied since the invasion began on Feb. 24. If Ukraine is sufficiently armed to defend itself, this goal is realistic, some Western military experts say.
“I do believe that by the end of this calendar year the Ukrainian forces are going to drive the Russian forces back to the Feb. 23 line,” said retired Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, a former commander of the U.S. Army in Europe who is now with the Center for European Policy Analysis. But to achieve this, he said, Ukraine must get enough Western long-range artillery and rocket systems, as well as the necessary ammunition. “If we fail to do that…then this is going to go on for potentially years,” Gen. Hodges said.
..
..Mr. Putin’s strategic goal—seizing Kyiv and eliminating Ukraine as a sovereign state—remains unchanged.
“They will keep going until someone stops them,” said Ukraine’s former defense minister, Andriy Zagorodnyuk, who advises President Zelensky’s government. “Some people still think that the Russians can be stopped with talks, with concessions. No, they can only be stopped with weapons—of which we are not receiving enough. This is the crux of the problem.”
..
Officials in the West have been cautious—analysts such as Gen. Hodges and Mr. Herbst say too cautious—about increasing support for Ukraine..'
-
..allies prepare to discuss new heavy-weapons supplies for Kyiv, June 13, 2022
'Being straightforward – to end the war we need heavy weapons parity:
1000 howitzers caliber 155 mm;
300 MLRS;
500 tanks;
2000 armored vehicles;
1000 drones.
Contact Group of Defense Ministers meeting is held in #Brussels on June 15. We are waiting for a decision.'
- Михайло Подоляк (
Source, June 13, 2022)
'Pokropyvayi and his men say that they have answered the call to ensure that the area and the rest of the country stays in Ukrainian hands. They want the West to do the same thing.'' “We cannot compete in terms of equipment but our forces are better trained and are more determined than the invaders,” he says after moving the Soviet-era tanks into woods where they cannot be spotted near the village of Novomykolaivka, about 90 miles west of Donetsk.
“We would have already won this war if we had better and bigger equipment. We need our allies to provide us with more weapons so that we can defeat the Russians.”
..
Fighting may be less fierce around Novomykolaivka, but in the three hours or so we are with Pokropyvayi and his band of reservists there are at least 20 exchanges of fire, most coming from the Russian side.
..
The six miles or so gained by the Ukrainians in the past month represent an effective counteroffensive, but it is slow going. Without new and better weapons it will take a long time for the Ukrainian military to win back all the territory controlled by the Russians, even if Moscow’s attention is elsewhere.
..
Pokropyvayi and his men say that they have answered the call to ensure that the area and the rest of the country stays in Ukrainian hands. They want the West to do the same thing.'
-
‘With better weapons we’d have beaten Russia already,’ June 10, 2022
'..Ryan and Mike speculate that, in the end, this war will be decided by the country that can endure the longest, in terms of their economies, logistics, materiel, and political will. And Ukraine’s endurance is tied up closely with the will of the West to continue backing Ukraine with arms and other supplies..
..
"..growing pains with assimilating and using it .. for one, maintenance is a real issue, sustaining this equipment .. keeping it in the field is a different question altogether.". - Michael Kofman (m. 14:40 - 14:56)'
- War on the Rocks (
Source, June 13, 2022)
Context (Mandela)(UN Responsibility to protect (R2P))(Russia commits crimes against humanity in Ukraine) - Shield against drones, aircraft, missiles, rockets and mortars (air exclusion zone)(Ukraine) - "..an artillery war now and ‘everything depends on what the west gives us.’"'Ukraine .. Western support will lead to victory.' - '..strategic patience is required for fighting, supporting & prevailing in wars. .. freedom must be defended..'We Should Say It. Russia Is Fascist - 'The Russian Federation promotes the extreme right everywhere.' - 'Bankrupt Putin & his regime. Give Ukraine what it needs to win.''..Negotiations & agreements with Putin have proven meaningless since he always lies. He must lose..'