Kyiv, Ukraine –
Ukrainian forces embroiled in a tough battle for control of the eastern part of the country have struggled to hold back Russian troops and buy some time on Thursday as they await the arrival of modern missiles and anti-aircraft weapons promised by the West.
As arms supplies are likely to remain for weeks, Ukraine expects a long period of grueling battle, military analysts said.
“There is a delay in time, so the next few weeks will be quite difficult for our Ukrainian friends,” said retired US Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, former commander of the US military in Europe.
Ukraine intends to drain Russian forces, as evidenced by street-to-street fighting in the critical eastern city of Severodonetsk, said Ukrainian military analyst Oleg Zhdanov.
“And that could take a long time,” he warned.
Britain on Thursday vowed to send sophisticated medium-range missile systems to Ukraine, joining the United States and Germany in supplying the country with some of the modern weapons it has called for to shoot down planes and destroy artillery and supply lines.
Western weapons were crucial to Ukraine’s success in stopping a much larger and better-equipped Russian army during the war, which was on its 99th day on Thursday.
The Kremlin has warned of “absolutely undesirable and rather unpleasant scenarios” if the latest weapons supplied by the West are fired at Russia.
“This pumping of Ukraine with weapons … will bring more suffering to Ukraine, which is simply an instrument in the hands of those countries that supply it with weapons,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Russian forces continued to strike at cities overnight and tighten their grip on Severodonetsk in Ukraine’s industrial Donbass, which Moscow intends to seize. About 800 people, including children, have been sheltered in bomb shelters at an attacked chemical plant in the city, the district governor said.
The British Ministry of Defense said Russia had taken most of Severodonetsk, one of two cities in Luhansk province that remained under Ukrainian control. Donbass consists of the provinces of Lugansk and Donetsk.
Meanwhile, residents forced to flee the Kyiv region after the failed attempt by the Russians to storm the capital weeks ago faced the huge task of rebuilding their shattered lives.
Nila Zelinska and her husband Eduard returned for the first time to the charred ruins of their home outside Kyiv. They fled with her 82-year-old mother amid Russian shelling and air strikes in the early days of the war.
Weeping Zelinska pulled out a doll belonging to one of her grandchildren, clutching it as if it were a real child.
“May there be peace on earth, peace so that our people do not suffer so much,” she said.
Speaking via video link at a security conference in Slovakia, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky called for even more weapons and sanctions against Russia to end such horrors.
“As of today, the occupiers control almost 20% of our territory,” he said.
Zelensky said Russia had fired 15 cruise missiles in the past day and used a total of 2,478 missiles since invading Ukraine. He said “most of them are focused on civil infrastructure”.
British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace has said Britain will send an unspecified number of M270 launchers that can launch precision-guided missiles up to 80 kilometers (50 miles) away. Ukrainian troops will be trained in Britain to use the equipment, he said.
On Wednesday, the United States said it would supply advanced missile systems to Ukraine, and Germany agreed to provide modern anti-aircraft missiles and radar systems.
Analysts believe Russia hopes to take over Donbass before any weapons arrive that could reverse the tide. It will take at least three weeks to bring US precision weapons and trained troops to the battlefield, the Pentagon said.
Military analyst Zhdanov said Russia had stepped up missile strikes in response to the promised weapons.
“The supply of Western weapons is of great concern to the Kremlin, because even without enough weapons, the Ukrainian army is boldly resisting the offensive,” he said.
Zhdanov predicts that Russian forces will be exhausted when the fierce fighting in and around Severodonetsk ends, which will give Ukraine time to get its weapons and prepare a counter-offensive.
Kyiv also received a diplomatic boost with the official installation on Thursday of the new US ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink.
Brink said her main priority was “to help Ukraine overcome Russian aggression”.
“There is no place on the planet that I would prefer to be,” she said after presenting her credentials to Zelensky. “President Biden said we would be here to help Ukraine for as long as necessary. And that’s what we’re going to do.
Brink is Washington’s first ambassador to Kyiv after former US President Donald Trump abruptly ousted Ambassador Marie Jovanovic in 2019. She later became a key figure in the impeachment proceedings against Trump.
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Bekatoros reported from Slavyansk, Ukraine. Juras Karmanau of Lviv, Ukraine, Ricardo Mazalan of Kyiv, Alexander Stashevsky of Potashnya, Ukraine, and Associated Press reporters from around the world contributed to this report.
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