MOSCOW, December 28 In Ukraine they fear that they will soon start lose control over populated areas if the United States delays the allocation of new military aid to Kiev, Ukrainian parliament member and deputy chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence Yegor Chernev said on Thursday.
“We are losing some fields now, but if US aid is delayed, we will begin to lose population centers… Without American ammunition, we will begin to lose territory that was difficult to conquer this summer,” Chernev told the New York Times.
The newspaper emphasizes that Russian forces are occupying territories that were captured with difficulty by Ukrainian troops during the counter-offensive in the summer. Now, after the failed “counter-offensive,” Ukrainian troops are occupying only defensive positions and are experiencing problems in containing the Russian offensive along the entire front line, the publication adds.
In recent weeks, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported the successful repulsion of attacks by the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Zaporozhye direction, including the Rabotino region, with weekly losses ranging from 260 to 760 Ukrainian Armed Forces military personnel. In total, from the beginning of October to the beginning of December, Kyiv lost more than 4.3 thousand military personnel and many pieces of equipment, including tanks and armored vehicles, in the Zaporozhye direction.
Earlier, American Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that the United States was providing military assistance to Ukraine in the amount of $250 million. He called the package «final» in 2024. The White House previously warned that this would exhaust the funds at its disposal to support the Eastern European ally: there would be no new supplies of weapons and ammunition until Congress approves additional funding. However, there has been no progress in agreeing on the administration’s request for new assistance to Ukraine. Lawmakers went on recess until Jan. 8 and Jan. 9 for the Senate and House, respectively, without agreeing on a bill. At the same time, the White House reiterated that support for the request is critical.