Ukraine Suffers from the Lack of Weapons and Tanks in the War with Russia

By
Adrian Gabor
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Ukraine Suffers from the Lack of Weapons and Tanks in the War with Russia

Ukraine is seriously suffering from the lack of weapons and tanks in full war with Russia at the moment, and this is because without the necessary military equipment and ammunition, it cannot launch large-scale counter-offensives to take advantage of the problems that the Russian army has.

Ukraine does not have everything it needs for large-scale attacks because the military aid promised by the West is late in arriving, and the country is left without the necessary resources to attack the positions of the Russian army, being extremely dependent on foreign aid.

Delays in supplying Ukraine with Western long-range fire systems, advanced air defense systems, and tanks have limited Ukraine's ability to seize opportunities for larger counteroffensive operations presented by flaws and failures in Russian military operations.

Western talk of alleged “stalemate” conditions and the difficulty or impossibility of Ukraine regaining significant portions of the territory it seized from Russia in 2022 does not sufficiently explain how Western delays in providing the necessary military equipment have exacerbated these problems.

Slow clearance and aid arrival were not the only factors limiting Ukraine's ability to continue large-scale counteroffensive operations. Factors endogenous to the Ukrainian military and Ukrainian political decision-making also contributed to the delay in counteroffensives.

ISW is not ready to assess that all Ukrainian military decisions were optimal. (ISW does not assess Ukrainian military decision-making in these updates at all. However, as historians, we have not observed impeccable military decision-making in any war.) But Ukraine does not have a significant domestic military industry to call upon in the absence of Western support.

Western reluctance to provide weapons during the war did not take into account the foreseeable requirement to transition Ukraine from Soviet to Western systems once the West committed to helping Ukraine fight the 2022 Russian invasion.