Ukraine Needs “Long-Range Fires” to Defend  Donbas Against Russia

Video Above: Pentagon Sends Critical MLRS Multiple Launch Rocket Systems to Ukraine

By Kris Osborn – President & Editor-In-Chief, Warrior Maven

Russia is making gains in Donbas in the Eastern portions of Ukraine, despite massive and intense Ukrainian resistance, a development which is not surprisingly generating new international concern.

Most of all, Ukraine still needs “long-range fires, armor and coastal defense,” according to US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who addressed the free world at the third meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. Austin was clear that despite the massive international effort thus far, Ukraine still needs more.

Donbas

“After failing to take Kyiv and reassuring its combat aims — or reassessing its combat aims, Russia has shifted its focus to the Donbas, and we can’t underestimate the challenge that Ukraine faces. 

Russia is using its long-range fires to try to overwhelm Ukrainian positions, and Russia continues to indiscriminately bombard Ukraine’s sovereign territory and recklessly endanger Ukrainian civilians,” Austin added in his opening remarks. “We must intensify our shared commitment to Ukraine’s self-defense and we must push ourselves even harder to ensure that Ukraine can defend itself, its citizens and its territory,” Austin explained.

While Ukraines success against a massive Russian Army has caught the world by surprise and generated unexpected success, many have warned that the sheer size of the Russian force might eventually overwhelm Ukrainian defenses.