Ukraine Implores West for Weapons

Anthony Borden

IWPR Executive Director

Wednesday, 2 March, 2022

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With Russian forces escalating their bombardment of civilian areas and a 40 mile long convoy closing in on Kyiv to strangle the capital, the Ukrainian military urgently needs weapons to continue the fight.  

“We need more weapons, and we need them yesterday, not tomorrow,” a senior Ukrainian official with close connections to the military told IWPR.

Russia’s attack on the television tower in Kyiv, bombardment of central Kharkiv and escalating attacks on civilian areas suggest that the Russian strategy has shifted. As in Chechnya and Syria, Russia may be focusing on crushing fighters’ resolve by bombarding civilian areas. The British defence ministry has reported an increase in air and artillery strikes on urban areas, and said that Kharkiv, Kherson and Mariupol were all encircled.

A retired general, who had just made the journey from Kyiv to Lviv, told IWPR that the free areas in a perimeter around the capital that were not blockaded by Russian forces were diminishing, forcing him to take a circuitous route. Expectations are that the situation at the Polish border will change rapidly, with lines growing as the flow of people continues.

Much focus is on the ominous progress of the military convoy heading to Kyiv. Asked why it had not been attacked, the senior official, who asked to remain anonymous, said, “Weapons. We don’t have the weapons.”

The Ukrainians are now asking NATO to guarantee a 30 kilometre or more safe corridor from the Polish border to enable them to receive and base materiel.

Poland and other neighbouring states have, however, pulled back over the last few days from an agreement to provide 70 ex-Soviet fighter planes. These are available, and within the experience of Ukrainian pilots to fly. However, fears of escalating the conflict have renewed caution among Warsaw and others, to the obvious disappointment of the Ukrainians.

The primary weapons they are seeking include anti-tank Javelins, anti-aircraft Stingers, attack drones and Patriot surface-to-air missile defence systems. The full list has been made available to supportive western countries, but so far the materiel is not arriving fast enough.

Both sources stressed the capacity of the army – including the emerging International Brigade – to continue the fight.

“The whole nation is together, the army is fighting, and the people, even children will fight,” said the senior source. “The story in the news is refugees and people leaving. But the real story is people staying and fighting. Yet if we have procrastination for two to three weeks, then there will be no one you can give the guns to.”

The urgency of the situation was clear. Reports indicate that Russia has now committed 80 per cent of its forces to the field, suggesting that the assault on Kyiv has begun.

Scenes of refugee flows, and the increasing challenges of transportation and movement, lend an intense anxiety to everyone on the ground – a constant distraction worrying about the status of loved one, parents and oneself.

“They are destroying all the cultural heritage of Ukraine by attacking the city centres,” said the senior Ukrainian source.

Russian special forces, the general stated, have been dropped into the woods, and there are fears of infiltration and fake identity actions by Russian forces on the ground, even within Kyiv. 

Citizens are extremely nervous about Russian saboteurs and spotters, and any effort to take a photograph on the streets of any military or military installation may be met with angry shouts from passers-by or stern rebuke from a soldier. 

The general, who has held top army, intelligence and political roles throughout his career, was confident that the population was united against the enemy and would fight on the ground to defeat demoralized Russian soldiers.

He outlined a consistent and focused campaign over more than a decade by Russia to weaken Ukraine and undermine its authority. The current war, he said, was only a continuation of this policy.

 Dismissing Putin’s “barbaric use of history,” the general added, “The Russian empire makes no sense without Ukraine. But Ukraine has its own long history, and we are going to defend it.”