Delays in promised Western military aid to Ukraine are costing lives, the defense minister says

KYIV, Ukraine —  Half of all Western military support promised to Ukraine fails to arrive on time, complicating the task of military planners and ultimately costing the lives of soldiers in Russia’s war, the Ukrainian defense minister said Sunday.

Rustan Umerov, speaking at the “Ukraine. Year 2024” forum in Kyiv, said each delayed aid shipment meant Ukrainian troop losses, and underscored Russia’s superior military might.

President Volodymyr Zelensky later told attendees at the event that 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed in action since Russia launched its full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022. It was the first time that Kyiv has confirmed the number of its losses.

Commemorations to mark the second anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Saturday brought expressions of continued support, new bilateral security agreements and new aid commitments from Ukraine’s Western allies. But Umerov said that they still needed to deliver on their commitments if Ukraine is to have any chance of holding out against Russia.

“We look to the enemy: Their economy is almost $2 trillion, they use up to 15% official and nonofficial budget [funds] for the war, which constitutes more than $150 billion,” he said. “So basically whenever a commitment doesn’t come on time, we lose people, we lose territories.”

Umerov and the Ukrainian military’s commander in chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi, toured front-line combat posts earlier Sunday amid a worsening ammunition shortage and dogged Russian attacks in the east.

During a news conference after the forum Sunday, Zelensky said four brigades did not take part in the country’s counteroffensive against Russian forces because they hadn’t received the equipment they were expecting.

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“Can you imagine the numbers of guys who would have fought, who couldn’t? The ones that had to sit and wait for the equipment they never received?”

The Ukrainian leader also confirmed plans for an international peace summit to tackle issues exacerbated by the war, such as nuclear or food security, in Switzerland in 2024.

That would be followed by a potential invitation to Russian representatives to attend a second summit later in the year. However, Zelensky said, Ukraine would not submit to a peace plan that did not serve its interests, and discarded the idea of direct negotiations.

“Is it possible to talk to a man who kills his opponents?” Zelensky said, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin. “We will offer a platform where he can agree that he has lost this war and that it was a mistake.”

Many of Putin’s critics have died in various ways, including by poisoning, gunshot wounds and falling out open windows. Putin’s fiercest foe, opposition leader Alexei Navalny — who in 2020 survived a poisoning attempt — died suddenly at a remote Arctic penal colony this month. Russia says it is investigating.

Zelensky also spoke about ongoing fighting in northeastern Ukraine, where front-line conflict has intensified in recent months leading to Russia’s capture of the strategic city of Avdiivka. He said Moscow was using heavy artillery fire to put pressure on Ukrainian forces in the directions of Kharkiv and Kupiansk. However, his speech remained defiant.

“Will Ukraine lose in this war? I am sure that it won’t,” he said. “Our most difficult moment was on Feb. 24 two years ago. We have no alternative but to win.”

“If Ukraine loses, then we will not exist. We do not want such an ending to this fight for our lives.”

Russian forces on Sunday appeared to be pressing on west of Avdiivka. Gen. Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, who leads Ukrainian forces fighting in the area, said his troops had retreated from much of Lastochkyne, a western suburb of Avdiivka. Some Ukrainian media reported that Russian troops had taken Lastochkyne, but there was no official confirmation from Kyiv and the battlefield situation appeared fluid.

Syrskyi replaced Ukraine’s top military commander, Valerii Zaluzhny, this month in the most significant shake-up of the top brass since the start of the full-scale war. The move came after a long-expected counteroffensive last summer failed to produce major breakthroughs and as military aid for Kyiv hangs in the balance in the U.S. Congress. Russia still controls roughly a quarter of the country.

Jake Sullivan, President Biden’s national security advisor, on Sunday said he believes Kyiv has a path to victory, as long as Western allies deliver “the tools that it needs.”

Speaking to NBC in Washington, Sullivan acknowledged that Ukrainian forces lost the strategic town of Avdiivka because of a shortage of ammunition. He called on Congress to “step up” and pass the additional $60 billion in security assistance requested by the Biden administration.

“I think it’s important to take a step back and remember that two years ago, everyone was predicting that Ukraine was going to fall,” Sullivan said, adding that Moscow has already “failed in its fundamental objective” to “subjugate” its neighbor.

“The reality is that Putin gains every day that Ukraine does not get the resources it needs, and Ukraine suffers,” Sullivan added.

Also on Sunday, Germany’s top diplomat announced during a visit to southern Ukraine that Berlin would send Kyiv an extra $108 million in humanitarian aid, according to Germany’s DPA agency.

Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock then had to abort a visit to a water supply station in the city of Mykolaiv after a Russian drone was spotted in the area, DPA reported. Baerbock and her delegation rushed back into their armored vehicles, and the drone briefly followed the convoy before veering off, the agency said.

Russian shelling and rocket strikes continued to pummel Ukraine’s south and east Sunday. Local officials reported that at least two civilians were killed and eight others were wounded in the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson provinces.

A woman was wounded and a railway station turned into a smoldering ruin amid heavy shelling in the eastern city of Kostiantynivka, according to the head of the municipal military administration. Ukraine’s public broadcaster, Suspilne, cited local police as saying the strikes also damaged an Orthodox church, more than a dozen residential buildings and dozens of shops, a post office, schools and local government offices.

Meanwhile, Russia and Ukraine also continued to trade nightly drone attacks.