Ukraine is having a difficult time on the front lines in its conflict with Russia, the commander-in-chief of Kiev's armed forces, General Aleksandr Syrsky, told his country's Western backers during a virtual Ramstein group meeting on Friday.
The remarks come amid a continued Russian offensive in Donbass, in which the Ukrainian military lost more than 8,000 soldiers in just one week, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.
“I… informed the coalition members about the difficult operational and strategic situation, which has a tendency to get worse,” Syrsky said in a Telegram post on Saturday, in which he spoke about talks with Western nations on providing military aid to Ukraine. Kiev “urgently needs” missiles, ammunition, weapons, and military equipment, the general said.
The US recently approved a military aid package for Ukraine worth $61 billion. The emergency spending bill had been stuck in Congress for months as it was blocked by Republican lawmakers who sought concessions from the White House on US border control spending.
The approval was welcomed by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, who told NBC that his nation has a “chance at victory” with more Western weapons coming its way. Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba was more skeptical, saying “no single package can stop the Russians.”
Moscow dismissed the news by saying that no Western weapons can change the dynamics on the front lines. Russia has been on the offensive since early this year, and captured the strategic Donbass city of Avdeevka in February. Since then, Russian forces have continued to advance further west and have seized several smaller settlements in the area. Over the past week, they took over two villages from Ukrainian forces, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.
Earlier this month, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said Kiev had lost almost 500,000 soldiers since the start of the conflict in February 2022. Ukrainian officials and the military have repeatedly pointed to the urgent need to replenish their losses. Zelensky recently signed into law a radical reform of the mobilization system, meant to boost conscription numbers by introducing harsh punishments for draft avoidance.