WASHINGTON -- The top U.S. general in Europe has warned that Ukraine cannot sustain its fight against Russia alone as a major spending bill languishes in the House of Representatives, blocked by a small number of Republicans who believe domestic matters should take priority.
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General Christopher Cavoli, the commander of European Command, told the House Armed Services Committee on April 10 that the severity of the situation in Ukraine “can’t be overstated” as troops on the battlefield run short of ammunition and as the country’s air-defense capabilities are depleted.
“Ukraine cannot sustain this fight alone. The United States, our allies, and partners must continue to provide Ukraine with munitions, weapons, and materiel,” Cavoli said.
Ukrainian troops have been rationing ammunition as Russian forces outfire them at a rate of about 5-to-1, he told the committee.
“That will immediately go to 10-to-1 in a matter of weeks. We are not talking about months. We are not talking hypothetically…. We are talking about weeks,” Cavoli said.
Earlier this week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned Ukraine’s military position was weakening amid a shortfall of ammunition and weapons, especially air defenses, caused by the halt in U.S. military aid. Russia has stepped up air and ground attacks against Ukraine since the start of the year in an attempt to deplete Kyiv’s weapons stockpiles ahead of an expected offensive later this spring.
Cavoli stressed that the U.S. contribution is critical, particularly in artillery munitions and air-defense interceptors, which he said are the most critical elements of the fight.
“The biggest killer on the battlefield is artillery…. Should Ukraine run out, they would run out because we stopped supplying…the lion’s share. Likewise, the air-defense interceptors,” Cavoli said.
He noted in his opening statement that Russia relies on “the mass and quantity available to a large country” to maintain military production, including at new factories to make artillery shells and tanks.
In its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia’s tactic has been to launch large scale attacks every few days, in keeping with its production rate, he said.
“They produce, they save up, they launch a big attack,” he said. “Those attacks would absolutely cripple the economy and the civil society as well as the military of Ukraine if they were not defended against. Without U.S. provision of interceptors, that will happen.”
The House of Representatives has not scheduled a vote on a bill to provide $60 billion in military assistance to Ukraine. The bill passed the Senate in February, and the White House has been urging Speaker Mike Johnson (Republican-Louisiana) to call a vote.
The bill has the support of many Republicans in Congress, but several hard-liners who also back former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, have blocked military support for Ukraine because they believe matters affecting the United States, such as border security and crime, should take priority over such spending.
They also say European governments should increase their own defense spending and do more to help Ukraine.
To that end, NATO allies agreed a week ago to initiate planning on long-term military support for Ukraine, even though a proposal by the alliance's secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg, to do so via a 100 billion-euro ($107 billion) five-year fund drew mixed responses.
Under the plans, the military alliance would assume some coordination work from a U.S.-led ad-hoc coalition known as the Ramstein group. Such a move, analysts and diplomats say, would help guard against any cut in U.S. support if Donald Trump wins the presidential election in November and returns to the White House.
The presumptive Republican nominee for president has been opposed to the aid package.