Ukraine needs 60 multiple rocket launchers, many more than the handful promised so far by the UK and US, to have a chance to defeat Russia, according to an aide to the country’s presidency.
Oleksiy Arestovych, a military adviser to the president’s chief of staff, told the Guardian that while he believed rocket launchers were “a game-changing weapon,” he had not committed enough to change course in the war. .
“The less we have, the worse our situation will be. Our troops will continue to die and we will continue to lose ground, “Arestovych said, especially if countries with dozens of systems only” decide to give four or five. “
On Monday, Britain said it would give a handful of M270 crawler rocket launchers, carrying missiles with a range of about 50 miles, just days after the United States said it would give four systems of high artillery rockets. similar mobility based on trucks (Himars).
Arestovych said Ukraine needed many more multiple rocket launcher (MLRS) systems, which are far more far-reaching than anything in the country’s existing arsenal.
“If we get 60 of these systems, then the Russians will lose all ability to advance anywhere, they will be stopped in the sequel. If we get 40 they will advance, albeit very slowly with significant casualties; with 20 they will continue to advance with lower casualties. that now, ”he said.
The U.S. military has 363 Himar rockets and 225 M270s, and the U.S. Navy has 47 more, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, while the United Kingdom has 35 of its M270s. indicates that there may be capacity to supply more. in Ukraine.
Russia has repeatedly said it will step up its offensive in Ukraine if long-range rockets are delivered. Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, said on Monday: “The higher the range of weapons you supply, the farther the line from where the neo-Nazis are. [the Ukrainians] could threaten to push the Russian Federation. “
On Sunday, Vladimir Putin said Moscow would attack “new targets” in Ukraine if the West increased its arms deliveries. In the early hours of Sunday morning, Russia launched a cruise missile attack on a railway depot in an eastern suburb of Kyiv, the first time the capital had been attacked in more than five weeks.
Ukraine’s latest public outcry came as a battle for control erupted in the small eastern town of Sievierodonetsk, with Kyiv forces trying to mount a counterattack after Russia nearly managed to capture it late last week.
Serhiy Haidai, the governor of Luhansk, where the city is located, said on Monday morning that “the situation has gotten a little worse for us” after reaching a point where Ukrainian forces had “released almost half of the city”.
On Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky gave a more pessimistic note and told reporters in Kyiv that while his country’s forces resisted, “there are more. [Russians] and they are stronger ”. Ukraine’s military losses have been estimated by privileged people at 150 dead a day and 800 wounded.
Haidai said the bombings had multiplied tenfold in Sievierodonetsk and neighboring Lysychansk, still held by Ukraine, and there were other reports of heavy fighting with machine gun fire, mortars and artillery and thousands of soldiers.
Overnight, it emerged that Zelenskiy had visited the front lines next Sunday to lift the morale of the soldiers. The president revealed that he had taken a risky trip to Lysychansk and near Soledar, which at one point took him a couple of kilometers from Russian positions.
“We also brought you some of them,” Zelenskiy added in a selfie video posted this morning. “It’s important. We’ve given them confidence. And strength. I wish them health. A low bow to their parents. I wish everyone victory.”
Volodymyr Zelenskiy with service members during his visit to the Bakhmut and Lysychansk districts. Photo: Presidential Press Service of Ukraine / AFP / Getty Images
Arestovych said Zelensky had wanted to “show support for the troops” because the fighting in the Donbas area was “quite tough for us”. The president also wanted to repel the “Russian misinformation” that “sits in his bunker in Kyiv and he doesn’t care less about the front line.”
Ukrainian strategists said they had tried to attract Russian forces to over-extend Sievierodonetsk, in hopes of reducing the operational effectiveness of the invading force. Although 120 Russian battalions remain inside Ukraine, Kyiv believes they are currently operating at 40% or 50% strength.
However, Russia has been advancing slowly but steadily in the Donbas region, advancing at a rate of about 500 meters to 1 kilometer a day for the past few weeks, largely concentrating its efforts on an ever smaller part. from the first line: in the surrounding area. Sievierodonetsk, where there is a bulge in the positions of Ukraine.
Arestovich said that Ukraine’s main problem was that while it could cause casualties to the Russians and slow its progress on the Donbas and through an 800-mile (1,300 km) front line, it was much more difficult to do. retreat occupants. The military usually has to secure a 3: 1 lead on the battlefield or more to have a prospect of victory.
“We need four to five heavy weapons brigades to be able to carry out a proper counter-offensive and be successful. We have the workforce, we don’t have the weapons,” Arestovych said. “Being on the offensive is five times harder than being on the defensive.”
The minister said his biggest fear was that the West would stop sending weapons to Ukraine, “because this will return to the original pre-war situation of long, static front lines, this time having been captured three times more. of our land. than before “.
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Elsewhere, Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces had killed more than 450 “nationalists” in Horlivka and Kodema, north of Donetsk, and destroyed parts of an armored vehicle repair facility in the Kharkiv region. No deaths have been reported by the Ukrainian side.
In Russia, the governor of the Kursk region, Roman Starovoit, said the village of Tyotkino, near the border with Ukraine, had been attacked by the Ukrainian side that had attacked a bridge and some businesses on Monday morning.