Ukraine says it needs more guns, shells, and firepower

Ukraine is pushing the United States to send artillery-launched mines and short-range air defences that can intercept Iranian-made drones, as ammunition supplies coming from the West continue to dwindle, according to three congressional aides and two Ukrainian officials familiar with the matter.

As Russia’s eastern and southern offensives stalled, and then went into reverse, Iranian-supplied drones have given Russia a temporary leg up in the battle of munitions by providing a cheap way to chip away at encroaching Ukrainian forces, Foreign Policy reported on October 26.

Ukrainian officials have been pushing for so-called dual-purpose improved conventional munitions, or DPICMs, for the past month—a form of cluster munitions that are designed to burst into scores of smaller submunitions to destroy mobile targets such as tanks or unsuspecting troops—as well as European-made equivalents. The United States is currently barred from exporting these systems.

Ukrainian officials are keen to acquire the explosive weapons to reduce wear and tear to NATO-standard artillery cannons, one of a handful of new requests for U.S. and European shells and air defence systems in recent weeks. Ukraine is also pushing for the United States to send the truck-launched Avenger air defence system used by the U.S. Army to handle the surge of Iranian Shahed-136 drones, according to two congressional aides and a Ukrainian military official, among a handful of new requests.

The requests, which Ukrainian officials began making to their U.S. counterparts a month ago, have become more urgent as NATO stocks of Soviet-era 152 mm artillery have dwindled to almost zero, leaving Ukrainian troops more dependent on alliance-standard 155 mm howitzer artillery pieces to fight off the Russian advance.

But only 30 per cent of Ukraine’s artillery inventory is NATO-standard, and the intensity of recent artillery exchanges with Russian soldiers has raised concerns from Ukrainian officials about the lifespan of the new 155 mm cannons, which are already seeing increased wear and tear. That’s why they want the shells they fire to hit harder; the explosive rounds can be up to five times more powerful than a normal round.

Sasha Ustinova, a Ukrainian lawmaker, said Ukrainian officials had also requested BONUS cluster rounds, made by Sweden’s Bofors and France’s Nexter, which can be fired from NATO-standard artillery pieces to take out armoured vehicles, and the Ground-Launched Small Diameter Bomb, developed by Boeing and the automaker Saab.

Ukraine has also been asking for the Swedish-made Archer artillery system, another 155 mm howitzer gun that is mounted on the frame of a Volvo all-terrain vehicle.

Some worry that adding U.S.- and European-made mines to the battlefield could complicate the already extensive mine cleanup underway in the war-torn country, as Russia has extensively used mines and booby traps to prevent displaced Ukrainians from returning home, and would fly in the face of the Biden administration’s pledges to rid U.S. arsenals of failure-prone land mines and to provide $89 million to Ukraine to help remove land mines.

But meanwhile, as Kyiv and other cities continue to be pummeled from the air, Ukrainian officials have had air defences at the top of their list for more than a month, with Russian forces turning Iranian-made Shahed drones on civilian targets in Kyiv and elsewhere.

In letters to U.S. congressional leaders after Russian drone and missile strikes against Kyiv killed at least 11 people in early October, Ukraine’s top parliamentarian, Ruslan Stefanchuk, called for short-range air defenses to help intercept rockets, mortars, and artillery, as well as asking for U.S. fighter jets. A senior U.S. defence official said on Monday that NASAMS air defence systems pledged by the Pentagon aren’t set to arrive for another couple of weeks—but Ukraine insists the need is more urgent.

Congressional aides said limited U.S. availability of counter-mortar systems could be hampering the Biden administration from sending a system such as the Avenger, although the United States does have multiple variants of the M163 Vulcan air defence system in stock. Ukraine had also asked for the Swedish-made RBS 70 missile to help shoot down more of the pesky Iranian drones.