Some of the arms pledged to Kiev are yet to be produced, according to the newspaper
Despite billions of dollars worth of new weapons pledged by member states at a recent NATO summit, NATO officials don’t anticipate Ukraine launching a new offensive against Russian forces this year.
While Kiev received promises of more missiles, armored vehicles, and munitions at the Washington summit, and long-term support was pledged by the US and its allies, the delivery of these weapons will take months, even years, as some are still in production, the New York Times reported.
A senior NATO official, speaking anonymously, told the Times that the aid will put Ukraine on the path to a new offensive next year. Another official stated that Ukrainian troops will remain on the defensive for at least six more months.
The Ukrainian government has attributed the failures of its forces on the battlefield, including during last year’s widely publicized “counteroffensive,” to insufficient deliveries of Western arms. Earlier this month, Vladimir Zelensky echoed these concerns, claiming that Ukraine has troops ready to deploy but lacking the necessary weaponry.
”We have the desire [to launch a counteroffensive], but the tools have not arrived. That is, we have brigades without weapons, we have reserves, we have 14 under-armed brigades that do not have the appropriate weaponry,” he told Bloomberg.
Speaking privately with journalists, Western officials have placed some blame on Kiev for the situation, suggesting that Zelensky has overridden the Ukrainian military leadership on multiple occasions to prioritize his political objectives. For example, in early 2023, Zelensky reportedly directed a significant deployment of forces to defend the city of Artyomovsk, also known as Bakhmut, despite calls from US military officials to retreat and preserve troops for a future counterattack.
Moscow has asserted that no amount of foreign aid will alter the outcome of the Ukraine conflict, arguing that external support only prolongs the hostilities. Russian officials have predicted that Western-made weapons “will burn” just like the rest of Ukraine’s military equipment.