Nearly all the combat vehicles Ukraine’s Western allies promised to deliver in time for Kyiv’s expected spring counteroffensive have arrived, NATO’s top military commander said on Wednesday.
“Over 98 percent of the combat vehicles are already there,” said the officer, Gen. Christopher G. Cavoli, who is also the top commander of U.S. forces in Europe. In testimony before the House Armed Services Committee, he said, “I am very confident that we have delivered the matériel that they need and we’ll continue a pipeline to sustain their operations as well.”
General Cavoli’s comments were his most expansive on the war in Ukraine and America’s military support of Kyiv since he assumed the European and NATO commands last year.
The United States and NATO allies have supplied Ukraine with extensive artillery and ammunition for the long-heralded counteroffensive, and officials now say they are hopeful the supplies will last — a change from two months ago, when they were only trickling in and U.S. officials were worried that they might run out.
General Cavoli explained to lawmakers how the allies worked with Ukraine to determine their war needs.
“We checked it a couple of times, and we gathered it from our allies, who were very generous, especially with regard to tanks and armored fighting vehicles. And we have been shipping it into the country,” General Cavoli said, adding, “The Ukrainians are in a good position.”
Asked why the Biden administration had not rushed the delivery of advanced U.S. fighter jets, like Air Force F-16s, to Ukraine, General Cavoli said that Ukrainian forces had other more urgent requirements for the offensive, which U.S. officials now expect to start as early as next month.
Celeste A. Wallander, the assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, told the lawmakers that advanced Western fighter aircraft ranked only “about eighth” on Ukraine’s priority list.
She said officials focused on resources with the “highest priority capabilities, and that has been air defense, artillery and armor.”
“There’s also a timing issue,” Ms. Wallander added. “What do they require right now, which is what we’ve been focused on for the battles that they’re facing. What can we deliver that will be timely and effective?”
Ukraine shares few details of its operational planning with the United States, but the counteroffensive appears likely to unfold in the country’s south, including along Ukraine’s coastline on the Sea of Azov, near the Russian-occupied Crimea peninsula, American officials say.
While Ukrainian officials have said that their goal is to break through dug-in Russian defenses and create a widespread collapse in Russia’s Army, American officials have assessed that the counteroffensive is unlikely to dramatically shift momentum in Ukraine’s favor.
