Almost all of the fight autos Ukraine’s Western allies promised to ship in time for Kyiv’s anticipated spring counteroffensive have arrived, NATO’s high navy commander mentioned on Wednesday.
“Over 98 p.c of the fight autos are already there,” mentioned the officer, Gen. Christopher G. Cavoli, who can also be the highest commander of U.S. forces in Europe. In testimony earlier than the Home Armed Providers Committee, he mentioned, “I’m very assured that now we have delivered the matériel that they want and we’ll proceed a pipeline to maintain their operations as properly.”
Normal Cavoli’s feedback had been his most expansive on the struggle in Ukraine and America’s navy help of Kyiv since he assumed the European and NATO instructions final 12 months.
The USA and NATO allies have provided Ukraine with intensive artillery and ammunition for the long-heralded counteroffensive, and officers now say they’re hopeful the provides will final — a change from two months in the past, once they had been solely trickling in and U.S. officers had been nervous that they could run out.
Normal Cavoli defined to lawmakers how the allies labored with Ukraine to find out their struggle wants.
“We checked it a few occasions, and we gathered it from our allies, who had been very beneficiant, particularly with regard to tanks and armored combating autos. And now we have been delivery it into the nation,” Normal Cavoli mentioned, including, “The Ukrainians are in a very good place.”
Requested why the Biden administration had not rushed the supply of superior U.S. fighter jets, like Air Drive F-16’s, to Ukraine, Normal Cavoli mentioned that Ukrainian forces had different extra pressing necessities for the offensive, which U.S. officers now count on to begin as early as subsequent month.
Celeste A. Wallander, the U.S. assistant secretary of protection for worldwide safety affairs, instructed the lawmakers that superior Western fighter plane ranked solely “about eighth” on Ukraine’s precedence checklist.
She mentioned officers targeted on assets with the “highest precedence capabilities, and that has been air protection, artillery and armor.”
“There’s additionally a timing problem,” Ms. Wallander added. “What do they require proper now, which is what we’ve been targeted on for the battles that they’re dealing with. What can we ship that can be well timed and efficient?”
Ukraine shares few particulars of its operational planning with American officers, however the counteroffensive seems more likely to unfold within the nation’s south, together with alongside Ukraine’s shoreline on the Sea of Azov, close to the Russian-occupied Crimea peninsula, U.S. officers say.
Whereas Ukrainian officers have mentioned that their objective is to interrupt by means of dug-in Russian defenses and create a widespread collapse in Russia’s Military, American officers have assessed that the counteroffensive is unlikely to dramatically shift momentum in Ukraine’s favor.