An advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told The Guardian that Ukraine needs many more rocket systems than the US and Britain have pledged to send.
Last week, the US announced it will give Ukraine four High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, known as HIMARS. The UK said it is sending a handful of M270 Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (MLRS), which have a similar capability as the HIMARS. Both systems will be outfitted with rockets that can hit targets up to 50 miles away.
Zelensky aide Oleksiy Arestovych said Ukraine needs 60 rocket launchers to stop Russia’s forces. “The fewer we get, the worse our situation will be. Our troops will continue to die and we will continue to lose ground,” he said.
Arestovych said if Ukraine receives 40 rocket launchers, Russian forces will still be able to advance, but with “heavy casualties.” With 20 rocket launchers, he said the battlefield situation would be similar to the current one but with “higher casualties.”
Since President Biden recently signed a bill allocating $40 billion for new Ukraine aid, which will mostly go toward military assistance, it’s likely the US will send Kyiv more rocket systems, but only time will tell how much impact the weapons have against Russia. Ukrainian forces still need to be trained on the systems, which the Pentagon said would take at least three weeks.
Russia has warned that the rocket systems to Ukraine will lead to an escalation in the war as they are the longest-range weapon the West has provided. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Monday that Moscow will push Ukrainian forces further back from the Russian border to defend against longer-range arms. Both the US and the UK have said they received assurances from the Ukrainian government that they wouldn’t use the rockets to target Russian territory.
More and more Americans want Zelensky eliminated!
It is the only way to start peace negotiations!
I keep hearing rumors that more and more soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine 𝐚𝐥𝐬𝐨 want him eliminated. The counter-attack in Severodonetsk is, in my opinion, a suicide mission. There was never any chance of victory and virtually no opportunity to retreat. I see no indications that it was ordered so that others might escape, and that will not be forgotten by those who remain.
Zelenski knows very well that he can only give the order “stop fighting” while he is in a one-way flight from Kyiv to Warsaw
The Russian objective is on the verge of being achieved. It is no longer the conquest of all of Ukraine but to conquer and secure most of Luhansk and Donetsk Oblasts, then declare them to be Russian territory like the Crimea. At that point the Russian armed forces can go into a defensive mode while the Ukrainian forces must get more offensive to throw the Russians out of Luhansk, Donetsk and Crimea to achieve Zelenski’s objective .
Consequences: more dead, more destruction, more madness which can only be stopped with an immediate and joint initiative by Biden and Putin. Basis of agreement: implementation of Minsk II and total withdrawal of Russian armed forces from Luhansk and Donetsk.
At this point, I can’t imagine Russia agreeing to withdraw from any of the conquered territory. The BEST Zelensky will be able to do, if he negotiates now, is Russian possession of all Donbas, and the Kherson region above Crimea. The Sea of Azov coast is gone from Ukraine forever.
The more the fighting continues, the more Ukraine will lose; Ukraine will never be able to generate the offensive capability to retake Donbas or Crimea if Russia digs in and prepares for the defense. Russia will always outgun Ukraine, and will always have air superiority, and the mismatched collection of junk being donated to Ukraine will never amount to the creation of a real first world mechanized army and competent air force. Ukraine will certainly never be able to buy the equipment they would need, and the west will never agree to donate that much – it would need several times the $54 billion the US has donated so far
“Ukraine will certainly never be able to buy the equipment they would need, and the west will never agree to donate that much – it would need several times the $54 billion the US has donated so far.”
I am not so sure that the U.S. and NATO won’t give Ukraine that much equipment. The U.S. is hell bent on the destruction of Russia. The U.S. wants to break Russia up and loot it of its natural resources. The U.S. cannot tolerate any competition from Russia on a level playing field.
Modern equipment, sufficient to equip four heavy divisions (armored or mechanized infantry) is astoundingly expensive – and probably the minimum Ukraine would need to conduct a successful offensive in Donbas and the Crimea (just by comparison, we used the equivalent of 7 heavy divisions to eject the Iraqis from Kuwait, and that doesn’t count the marine divisions, or the 82nd airborne, or the 101st airmobile division). That would equate to some 100,000 trained men, 1200 main battle tanks, 1200 infantry fighting vehicles, 300 self propelled howitzers, 72 MLRS, a fleet of armored breaching equipment, 100 attack helicopters, and an immense number of support vehicles (tank transporters, fuel transports, ammo carriers, etc, etc; plus a modern air defense system to protect it all, advanced targeting and fire control equipment, and some 200 modern attack aircraft (at about $100 million apiece) – and of course, an intense training program to get soldiers trained on using it all; not to mention the ammunition, fuel, spare parts, and technical support to keep all that stuff running. It would take years, and many times $54 billion dollars.
All we’re doing is giving the Ukrainians enough to ensure the killing continues for a few more months.
Of all the possible outcomes, the one I can confidently predict is that Crimea is never going to be on the table. It’s Russian and it’s going to stay Russian until the Russian Empi … er, “Federation” … collapses completely, which is not likely to happen any time soon or as a direct result of the Ukraine war.
I agree with you; but I’d take it further; Kherson won’t be on the table either, since the Ukrainians dammed the canal bringing fresh water from there to Crimea in 2014, acquisition of Kherson is considered vital to Crimea’s security; so I doubt there is any chance that would ever be given back. First thing taken in the war, for pretty practical reasons.
And you are hellbent on defending Russia, regardless of what atrocities they commit.
And you are hell bent on defending the NeoNazi thugs running things in Ukraine no matter what atrocities they commit.
Mary, you got it all wrong.
The Nazis have got their headquarter in the Kremlin, that’s a fact.
You are just repeating their talking points, to be more precise, you are doing Goebbels, sorry I mean Lavrov’s, bidding.
A classic case of projection on your part.
Not at all, the Russian Nazis are committed genocide.
Or any other country for that matter, Mary!
I think your description of the Russian objective was the plan from the start. I also think that Minsk2 could have worked. But Zelensky made his intentions clear in Decree 117/2021 and subsequently gathered over 100,000 troops into fortified positions near the Donbas by February 2022.
I cannot understand why Kiev (and the US) is so determined to subjugate its ethnic Russians. Yanukovych had delivered a solution that all of Ukraine supported. Regional autonomy was working!
Now Zelensky says the people he intended to conquer a year ago are HIS people. But it seems obvious to me that he wants the land and the infrastructure. The ethnic Russians can continue to live there in peace if and only if they reject their heritage. That is just not going to happen peacefully.
The principal Ukrainian coalmines and some major industries are located in Luhansk and Donetsk. Without coal and Russian gas Ukraine can only generate enough electrical power for its needs with nuclear which is expensive and dangerous.
It is therefore also obvious that the full implementation of Minsk II would always have made Ukraine somewhat vulnerable to Putinic demands and Ukraine might have had to join the Russian Commonwealth albeit as an independent state.
Ukraine No credit. Pay for every armament with cash-on-the-barrelhead. No to Biden & Congressional freebies.
The Kremlin’s efforts to censor information about deceased military personnel and ongoing forced mobilization within the DNR and LNR are reportedly exacerbating domestic tensions and opposition to the war in Russia.
The Kremlin has assigned lawyers and psychologists to convince families of personnel of the sunken cruiser Moskva to refrain from disclosing any information regarding the deaths of their relatives in an effort to crush rising social tensions in Russia.
The Kremlin is threatening to nullify financial compensation to the families of Moskva crew members if they publicly discuss the sinking of the cruiser, resulting in some relatives refusing to meet with Black Sesa Fleet commanders in Sevastopol in protest.
The Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) has been forced to alter mobilization protocols and is now finally promising compensation for wounded and deceased personnel due to DNR servicemen rioting at the frontlines.
I don’t follow the Russian Media. But Russia quickly admitted that 1 person died, and 27 people were injured in the Moscva incident.
https://www.reuters.com/world/russia-says-one-sailor-died-27-missing-after-missile-cruiser-sank-ria-2022-04-22/
Yes, I guess there were a few hundred dead they never admitted to.
These facts can only understood when one realizes that this is a civil war inside an international war. Somewhat like our revolutionary war.
Hence what you describe is normal for such fighting.
They are needed in large quantities and they are needed now.
Finally Ukraine has a good chance of throwing out the russkies!
Let them crawl back to the hellhole they came from.
Hi Don:
You seem overly verbose!…
It is of course weird that an unreconstructed war hawk like Don Bacon publishes his views on a site named “Anti War. Com”. Yet it is very good that we, real Anti-Warrers, get to be confronted again and again with the fact that there are millions of Don Bacons in our nation, hence I welcome his inane contributions here.
Well said Dieter!
This is a bit of a tricky situation for Biden/USA… There seems to be a few ways in which a bad situation can become worse… I certainly do hope that those on the US side are aware of the possible dangers of escalation…
Donna, I’m sure they’re well aware of it. They just don’t seem to give a rat’s ass, so long as they don’t lose their status of Empire.
The fight for Severodonetsk is a Russian information operation in the form of a battle. One of its main purposes for Moscow is to create the impression that Russia has regained its strength and will now overwhelm Ukraine. That impression is false. The Russian military in Ukraine is increasingly a spent force that cannot achieve a decisive victory if Ukrainians hold on.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is therefore trying to turn his invasion of Ukraine into a brutal contest of wills. He’s betting his army on breaking Ukrainians’ collective will to fight on in their country. His own won’t likely break. Fortunately, Ukraine doesn’t need it to. If Ukrainians can weather the current Russian storm and then counterattack the exhausted Russian forces they still have every chance to free their people and all their land.
Putin amassed the wreckage of Russian combat forces into a lethal amalgam around the cities of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk in Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk Oblast. That amalgam is crawling forward using massive artillery barrages to obliterate everything in its path allowing Russia’s demoralized and frightened soldiers to walk into the rubble.
Zelensky says, “give me more”!! “we need 60”!! Sure, why not? Of course, the entire UK military only has 44 of them (see wikipedia, equipment of the UK military) but don’t let that stop your “demands”. At this point, the $54 BN we have already committed is near to the entire Russian defense budget for 2021 ($65 BN), but “more” is always better; whatever Zelensky wants, he should get – F-35s, ICBMs, maybe a couple nuclear submarines to “break the blockade”…
This is getting ridiculous. And even with all that aid, Ukraine is still losing, and will lose in the end. Just throwing good money after bad; Germany, France and Italy have it right – Negotiate now; or get rid of Zelensky and put in someone who will, while Ukraine still has most of its country left.
What a circus. The main reason I’d like Russia to finish this faster is so I don’t have to hear any more BS from the morons running Ukraine. For that reason alone I’m beginning to want Russia to use nukes on Kiev. Anything to stop the rape of the US taxpayer. As the Sisters of Mercy song says, “Mother Russia, rain down, down, down.”
I guess this sh*t once and for all decimates the foolish notion that Dimocraps are the “party of peace”.
Allow me to tell you of an email from a “John Fetterman” who is running for the US Senate in Pennsylvania. He was begging me ( a resident of Michigan) for campaign donations.
Apparently his opponent is none other than Dr. Oz of television fame. Fetterman’s email went on to claim that if the Doctor were elected, he would serve as a Turkish spy in the government (!!!)
So I did a bit of research on this Fetterman guy. He is anti-BDS and claims he will support the IsraHelli government unconditionally. He accuses Dr. Oz of taking donations from Turkey; gee, I wonder who Fetterman is getting his donations from.
If this shit doesn’t convince one that Dimocraps are no better than Rethuglicans, I don’t know what would.
Vote G. Vote L. Vote for yourself, just don’t vote D or R!