Kiev expects a surge in Western arms shipments in the coming weeks after Iran’s attack on Israel allegedly demonstrated the technological superiority of the US and its allies, said Mykhailo Podolyak, a top adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Tehran fired hundreds of drones and rockets at Israel last weekend, in what it said was retaliation for an Israeli airstrike on its consulate in Damascus earlier this month. Israel says the attack caused only minor damage because the United States and other Western countries helped it capture most of Iran’s weapons.
Before the strike, Western media said Iran had carefully calibrated the operation to avoid further escalation and possible war with the United States.
In an interview Thursday, Podoljak said the developments presented Iran as “a worthless bragging bubble in the Middle East, just like Russia.”
He added that he is confident that the Western countries will now act more courageously regarding the arming of Kiev.
“I believe that in the coming weeks Ukraine will receive significantly more weapons and this will affect the front line” he told the Ukrainian channel 24.
He also said that access to more Western military capabilities would allow Kiev to compensate for the manpower shortage. Ukraine wants to be a party that “fights with technology against a backward power that fights with people,” Podoljak said.
In stark contrast to his words, this month Zelensky signed the mobilization law, which aims to boost the number of soldiers by threatening harsh punishments for citizens who avoid the draft. In February, the president previously claimed that only 32,000 Ukrainian soldiers had died in the conflict so far. Russia estimates the number of Ukrainian military casualties at more than 444,000.
Ukraine’s military is suffering from low morale amid a shortage of weapons and personnel, and some senior officers expect a collapse on the front lines this summer unless Western donors significantly increase their support, Politico reported this week.
