Ukraine says it needs 60 multiple-launch rocket systems to have a chance at defeating Russia, suggesting the number pledged by the West so far may be inadequate, along with access to sophisticated air defenses to help protect vulnerable residents from relentless shelling.
Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, told The Guardian that 60 launchers would stop Russian forces "dead in their tracks." Forty would slow them down with heavy casualties, he said, while 20 would increase Russian casualties but leave the battlefield outcome little changed.
The United States and Britain recently announced plans to provide Kyiv with multiple-launch rocket systems, which can hit targets up to 50 miles away.
Washington is dispatching four M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems though Ukrainian troops need at least three weeks of training to use them, the Pentagon said. Britain has confirmed it would send an unspecified number of M270 launch systems to Ukraine.
U.S. officials have left open the possibility that the United States could send additional rocket systems, but no decision to do so had been made as of Tuesday, said an American defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the matter remains unresolved.
Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will meet in France today with international counterparts to discuss how best to support Ukraine, this official said, though it was unclear whether they intend to address sending additional multiple-launch rocket systems.
The Kremlin has warned Western nations against equipping Kyiv with long-range weapons.
Over the weekend, Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened a wider campaign of shelling in response, even as he dismissed their efficacy.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov alleged that Ukraine would use the systems to strike targets inside Russia, though the Biden administration has said Kyiv agreed to use the weapons only within its territory. London has not said whether it has received a similar assurance from Kyiv, but its shipment was made in consultation with Washington.
Kyiv has said multiple-launch rocket systems shipments are a top priority as it loses ground in eastern Ukraine.
Thousands of Russian troops have been killed in combat since the war began in late February. Ukraine has used Western-supplied equipment to great effect, and Kyiv has claimed several high-profile battlefield victories against Russian tanks and ships.
Ukraine's navy said this week that it had pushed ships from Russia's Black Sea Fleet back about 60 miles from the Ukrainian coast. The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, has assessed that anti-ship missiles provided by the West may have helped Ukraine regain control of portions of the northwestern Black Sea.
PRESSURE ON ISRAEL
Ukraine's ambassador is urging Israel to sell its Iron Dome rocket interception system and provide anti-tank missiles to defend civilians against Russia's invasion.
Yevgen Korniychuk on Tuesday stopped short of accusing Israel of blocking the sale of the missile defense system. But he wants the Israeli government to back up its verbal support for Ukraine with military assistance.
At a news conference in Tel Aviv, he said Ukraine wants to buy the Iron Dome system, contending that the United States would not oppose such a sale.
The United States has been financially supporting Israel's Iron Dome for about a decade, providing about $1.6 billion for its production and maintenance, according to the Congressional Research Service. The system is designed to intercept and destroy short-range rockets fired into Israel.
Korniychuk also said Israel last week declined a U.S. request for Germany to deliver Israeli-licensed "Spike" anti-tank missiles to Ukraine.
Israel has limited its support for Ukraine to humanitarian aid and was the only country operating a field hospital inside the country earlier in the year. Israel fears helping Ukraine militarily would inflame Russia, which has a military presence in neighboring Syria. Israel, which carries out frequent strikes on enemy targets in Syria, relies on Russia for security coordination.
The Israeli Defense Ministry had no comment.
GERMAN DEPLOYMENT
Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Germany is ready to deploy more troops to the Baltics as part of a NATO effort to build up its eastern flank in the face of the invasion.
"We are prepared to strengthen our engagement toward a robust fighting brigade," Scholz said on Tuesday in Vilnius after a meeting with leaders from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.
The three leaders, whom Scholz met on his first Baltic visit since taking office in December, have pressed for an increase to brigade-sized units of as much as 5,000 troops. Germany leads the NATO contingent in Lithuania.
"The Baltic states are in a very sensitive security situation on the very front line of NATO," Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said alongside Scholz. "Lithuania is prepared to host more allied forces and to provide the necessary infrastructure."
At the June 29-30 NATO summit in Madrid, the 30-member alliance is expected to sign off on plans to reset its long-term defense strategy in light of Russia's attack on Ukraine. Along with bolstering its forces, NATO is expected to preposition more equipment and supplies on its eastern flank.
"In the case of an attack, we will defend every centimeter of NATO territory," Scholz said, reinforcing the alliance's Article 5 commitment to aid fellow members if they're attacked.
He also met Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins and Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas. Baltic leaders welcomed the decision by Scholz, who has come under enormous pressure from allies to contribute more to Ukraine's efforts to beat back Russia.
RUSSIA IN DONBAS
Russia on Tuesday claimed to have taken control of 97% of one of the two provinces that make up Ukraine's Donbas, bringing the Kremlin closer to its goal of fully capturing the eastern industrial heartland of coal mines and factories.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Moscow's forces hold nearly all of Luhansk province. And it appears that Russia now occupies roughly half of Donetsk province, according to Ukrainian officials and military analysts.
Moscow has concentrated its forces around the city and could take control of the Luhansk region in coming weeks, British military assessments show. But any victory there will come at a steep cost.
In what may be the latest instance of anti-Russian sabotage inside Ukraine, Russian state media reported Tuesday that an explosion at a cafe in the city of Kherson wounded four people. Tass called the apparent bombing in the Russian-occupied city a "terror act."
Earlier in the war, Ukraine successfully repelled Russian forces trying to seize the capital and other major cities. But Moscow has notched some recent victories in the flatlands of the east with the support of its long-range artillery systems, with pummeled Severodonetsk becoming the latest city in danger of falling under Russian control.
Before the invasion, Ukrainian officials said Russia controlled some 7% of the country, including the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014, and areas held by the separatists in Donetsk and Luhansk. Last week, Zelenskyy said Russian forces hold 20% of the country.
Zelenskyy said Russian forces made no significant advances in the eastern Donbas region over the past day.
"The absolutely heroic defense of the Donbas continues," he said late Tuesday in his nightly video address.
Zelenskyy said the Russians clearly did not expect to meet so much resistance and are now trying to bring in additional troops and equipment. He said the same was true in the Kherson region.
Shoigu said Moscow's forces have seized the residential quarters of Sievierodonetsk and are fighting to take control of an industrial zone on the city's outskirts and nearby towns.
Ukrainian troops are holding their positions despite relentless shelling and "doing their utmost to defend the city," Mayor Oleksandr Stryuk said Tuesday, but the situation remains "difficult."
Shoigu said Russian troops were pressing their offensive toward the town of Popasna and have taken control of Lyman and Sviatohirsk and 15 other towns in the region.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak urged his people not to be downhearted about the battlefield reverses.
"Don't let the news that we've ceded something scare you," he said in a video address. "It is clear that tactical maneuvers are ongoing. We cede something, we take something back."
Luhansk Gov. Serhiy Haidai conceded that Russian forces control the industrial outskirts of Sievierodonetsk.
"The toughest street battles continue, with varying degrees of success," Haidai said. "The situation constantly changes, but the Ukrainians are repelling attacks."
Moscow's forces also kept up their artillery barrage of Lysychansk. Haidai said Russian troops shelled a market, a school and a college building, destroying the latter. At least three people were wounded, he said.
"A total destruction of the city is under way. Russian shelling has intensified significantly over the past 24 hours. Russians are using scorched-earth tactics," Haidai said.
In other developments, Zelenskyy said Ukraine planned to publish a special "Book of Executioners" next week with information about war crimes committed by the Russian army.
"These are specific facts about specific people who are guilty of specific cruel crimes against Ukrainians," he said. Those named would include not only people who carried out the crimes but their commanders, he said.
The war also brought a standoff Tuesday between the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency and Ukrainian authorities over the biggest nuclear power plant in Europe.
International Atomic Energy Agency director Rafael Mariano Grossi wants to visit the Zaporizhzhia plant to help maintain its safety after it was taken by Russian troops in March. But Energoatom, the Ukrainian state company overseeing the country's nuclear plants, said in a blunt statement that Grossi isn't welcome.
It said his planned tour is "yet another attempt to legitimize the occupier's presence there."
Information for this article was contributed by Andrew Jeong, Lateshia Beachum, Mary Ilyushina Annabelle Chapman, Karoun Demirjian, Dan Lamothe, Claire Parker and Adela Suliman of The Washington Post, by John Leicester, Hanna Arhirova, David Keyton, Oleksandr Stashevskyi, Yuras Karmanau, Andrew Katell, Lolita Baldor and staff members of The Associated Press and by Michael Nienaber and Milda Seputyte of Bloomberg News (WPNS).