The maximalist demand was made public by Mykhailo Podolyak, a key presidential adviser, on Twitter on Monday, who argued that Ukraine needed a “heavy arms parity” to defeat Russia and end the war. That would require, he said, 300 of the Multiple Missile Systems (MLRS) – well more than about seven so far committed by the US and the UK – and more than the 60 or more that other advisers have previously said would be covered. his needs. Podolyak’s complete list also included “1,000 projectiles” of the NATO 155 mm model, several times more than what has been sent so far. The US, the largest arms supplier, had delivered 109 by the end of May. A special meeting of defense ministers is being held Wednesday in Brussels, chaired by US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, to discuss future arms donations, the third such meeting since the start of the war. Ben Wallace, his British counterpart, is among those scheduled to attend. It comes at a time when the Ukrainian army is struggling to resist a fierce attack by Russian artillery in the eastern Donbass region and losing, in a few days, 200 soldiers were killed in the fiercest fighting in Europe since the end of World War II. In the midst of such pressure, the meeting gained particular importance in Kyiv, which wants substantial and rapid deliveries of ammunition so that it can try to force Russian invaders out of its territory before the weather changes. Some experts said that Podolyak’s tweet was better interpreted as a bargaining chip. But there are also questions about whether such overt lobbies could be counterproductive, especially with countries such as Germany, which has repeatedly been reluctant to supply arms and is slower than the US and UK in delivering to Ukraine than publicly promised. The German weapons committed in late April include shells and a mobile Gepard artillery, but the artillery is due to arrive later this month and specialized armored vehicles in July, much to Kiev’s disappointment. The other demands of Podolyak, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s chief of staff, were “500 tanks. 2,000 armored vehicles. 1,000 drones ”- all the significant numbers of heavy weapons that would dramatically change the military balance and, in some cases, significantly deplete Western supplies. Three hundred MLRS would represent about half of the existing US stock. According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), the US military has 363 Himars truck missiles and 225 M270 reconnaissance launchers, and the US Marines have another 47. The UK has 35 of the M270 version. Last week, another adviser to the Ukrainian president, military analyst Oleksiy Arestovych, said Kyiv would need 60 rocket launchers to stop Russian invaders “dead in their tracks” – and some believe Ukraine’s real demand is for 100, much more than the current level of western offers. A gift of 1,000 shells would roughly match the US arsenal. IISS data collected before the donation of 109 show that the US military has 518 M777 sniper rifles of the type already supplied by the US Marines and another 481. However, there are many more than 500 tanks available to Western forces. The U.S. military alone has about 2,645 Abrams tanks and about 3,450 in stock, according to the IISS annual review of military stockpiles. Both before and at the beginning of the war, Western countries stated that they would only supply “defense weapons” to Ukraine either to prevent an invasion or to stop an advance. Russia, however, has managed to occupy a significant portion of its territory to the east and south, prompting calls for a repulse of its forces.
