Ukraine is having a hard time fighting Russia, the commander-in-chief of the nation’s armed forces, General Aleksandr Syrsky, has admitted this week. The situation on the front lines is “difficult,” he told Kiev’s Western backers during a virtual Ramstein group meeting on Friday.
His words came amid the continued Russian offensive in Donbass, which saw the Ukrainian military lose 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, where he spoke about the talks with the Western nations providing military aid to Ukraine. Kiev “urgently needs” missiles, ammunition, weapons and military equipment, the general said.
His words came as the US approved another military aid package to Ukraine worth some $61 billion. The emergency spending legislation had been stuck in Congress for months as it was blocked by Republican lawmakers seeking concessions from the White House on US border control policies.