Ukraine most urgently needs artillery with ammunition, and then armored vehicles and aircrafts.
Military expert Roman Svitan believes that the Ukrainian Armed Forces need artillery and ammunition above all, as Russian troops suffer 80-90% of their losses as a result of artillery fire, as Svitan said in his interview with journalist Dmytro Gordon. When asked about what Western weapons Ukraine needs the most now to win as soon as possible, Svitan stressed the importance of artillery.
"Even though I am a pilot and should start with air forces, I will start with general combat operations, where the most important weapon is artillery. Artillery, artillery and more artillery. Around 80-90% of enemy losses are caused by artillery fire. Therefore, we need any artillery, preferably high-precision, and a lot of ammunition," Svitan emphasized.
He noted that for every shell fired by the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the direction of the enemy on the battlefield, five to seven Russian shells are fired in return. In addition to increasing the number of artillery, it is necessary to train personnel to work with these weapons. The military expert also believes that in addition to artillery and ammunition, Ukraine also needs armored vehicles.
"The second thing is armor. What is the purpose of armor? Any potential offensive operation without sufficient armor would result in major personnel losses... To protect well-trained troops, you need armor," Svitan explained.
According him, these are mostly armored personnel carriers, infantry fighting vehicles and tanks. These are offensive weapons. After that, according to Svitan, Ukraine needs aviation to use it during the counteroffensive operations. The expert emphasized the important of multi-purpose fighter jets.
"Aviation is needed mainly for offense operations. For defense operations, it less important, though. Air forces won’t likely be used much for strikes against the enemy because of air defence, but air forces are also needed against, say, missiles. This is important element of both ground offensives and for interception missions. That is, we need multi-purpose fighters that could carry bombs, could carry air-to-ground missiles for ground operations, and could carry air-to-air missiles to intercept enemy missiles," Svitan explained.
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