Ukraine said earlier on Thursday its forces hit two military checkpoints and an airstrip in a town in Russian-held territory in southern Ukraine, the latest attack Kyiv says its forces have carried out deep into Russian-held territory in recent years. two weeks. General Oleksiy Gromov told a news conference that arms supplies from the West are critical to the Ukrainian strikes and singled out the US high-mobility artillery missile systems (HIMARS) that Kyiv began receiving last month. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register HIMARS have a longer range and are more accurate than the Soviet-era artillery that Ukraine had in its arsenal. “We’re reducing the enemy’s capability, we’re knocking out their supply, we’re knocking out their ammunition… The enemy is being forced to change their system of supplying ammunition and fuel,” Gromov said. “Currently the enemy is considering placing brigade-level ammunition dumps no closer than 100 kilometers (62 miles) from the front line and corps-level depots at distances greater than 150 kilometers.” The West has supplied Ukraine with longer-range heavy artillery and multiple-launch missile systems to help Kyiv hold out despite Russian artillery superiority in numbers and ammunition. The Russian Foreign Ministry on Thursday criticized the United States and Britain for helping to train Ukraine’s armed forces and accused Washington of providing Ukraine with trainers to help Kiev’s forces use HIMARS. read more Gromov’s claims could not be independently verified by Reuters. But they suggest that Western weapons are having a big impact on the battlefield and could signal a subtle shift in the dynamics of the war after nearly five months. “In addition to the MLRS, we are actively using 155-mm smart shells with autoscopic elements, with the help of which almost 30 of the enemy’s armored objects have already been hit,” Gromov said. Russia, which invaded Ukraine on February 24, has seized a chunk of territory in southern Ukraine and used its artillery superiority in the east to make gradual territorial gains, eventually seizing the Luhansk region. read more Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Reporting by Max Hunder, Writing by Tom Balmforth, Editing by Timothy Heritage Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
