Ukrainian military needs more spare parts to help win the war: Ex-minister of defense

Andriy Zagorodnyuk, the previous protection minister of Ukraine, spoke with Fox Information Digital in regards to the Ukrainian counteroffensive, providing perception into how Russian mines have slowed the Ukrainian army and what to anticipate because the conflict continues. 

Zagorodnyuk stated Russian mines have considerably slowed the counteroffensive and in some cases, mines are just a few toes aside making it tough for Ukrainian forces to journey quick distances shortly. 

“They’re wanting extra fastidiously about the place to maneuver and learn how to open up as a result of we’re speaking about roughly 2 million mines,” he stated. “There’s intense mining in some areas.”

Ukrainian mine clearance staff collect and conduct mine and ammunition clearance after Russian Forces withdrawal from the Izyum metropolis, at fields round freeway situated between Izyum and Slovyansk districts, Kharkiv Oblast. (Photograph by Metin Aktas/Anadolu Company through Getty Photographs)

Ukrainian military’s thirty fifth Marine Brigade members conduct mine clearance work at a subject in Donetsk, Ukraine, on July 11, 2023. (Photograph by Ercin Erturk/Anadolu Company through Getty Photographs)

Zagorodynyuk defined that the demining course of takes a very long time, and in newly liberated areas, a staff of humanitarian deminers wants to come back in to clear the world of potential mines. 

He added that demining in areas beneath fireplace from the Russian army is “extraordinarily tough.” 

“We are able to explode mines, we are able to ship in some sort of bombs to explode the mines or one thing like that. But it surely’s extraordinarily robust. So there is not any magic answer to demining on this case,” he instructed Fox Information Digital. 

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The previous protection minister stated a bigger provide of spare components would assist Ukraine considerably as a result of upkeep is a “large subject proper now.” 

The U.S. agreed in January to ship 31 M1A1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, and Germany and Poland committed to sending Leopard tanks. 

U.S. troopers from 2nd Battalion, seventieth Armor Regiment, 1st Infantry Division practice with M1A2 Abrams tanks at Nowa Deba, in Nowa Deba, Poland, on April 12, 2023. (Photograph by Artur Widak/NurPhoto through Getty Photographs)

Zagorodnyuk stated the completely different makes and fashions and the completely different spares from completely different nations are “like a nightmare of its personal.” 

“To sort of provide us [with] extra spares and provides, possibly an opportunity to make spares at house, you already know, as a result of we are able to do manufacturing at house and so forth… that might considerably enhance the scenario as a result of that might imply that the upkeep can be going a lot quicker,” he defined. 

The distinguished fellow on the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Heart instructed Fox Information Digital that Ukrainian counteroffensive plans had been made with out contingencies for aviation as a result of conversations regarding F-16s had been nonetheless happening. 

John Kirby, a spokesperson for the Nationwide Safety Council, instructed “The Story” in late July that F-16s would most likely get to Ukraine “in direction of the tip of the yr.” “But it surely’s not our evaluation that the F-16s alone can be sufficient to show the tide right here,” Kirby stated. 

An F-16 fighter jets takes half within the NATO Air Shielding train close to the air base in Lask, Poland, Oct. 12, 2022. (RADOSLAW JOZWIAK/AFP through Getty Photographs)

Zagorodnyuk stated F-16s would offer the Ukrainians with long-range energy fireplace and would enable them to create extra NATO-centric planning operations, counting on air supremacy to strike enemy targets. 

“Proper now what we do is a whole innovation. No person did that earlier than… so no one is aware of learn how to struggle [the] conflict like ours with out aviation,” he stated. “There aren’t any rule books written for the conflict like we’re preventing now.” 

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“And that is why… yeah, it could go not as quick as anyone wished, however we’re having a substantial challenge,” Zagorodnyuk continued.

Bryan Stern, a former counterintelligence officer and the founding father of Challenge Dynamo, instructed Fox Information Digital that U.S. armor operations are predicated on utilizing tanks and shut air help in tandem. 

A destroyed tank is pictured in Mariupol on Might 30, 2022, amid the continued Russian army motion in Ukraine. (Photograph by STRINGER/AFP through Getty Photographs)

“In case you’re a U.S. Military teacher coaching a bunch of Ukrainians on learn how to do tank warfare, we have unnoticed half the handbook with them. That is senseless. That is simply sort of foolish,” Stern stated. 

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“After which we’ll cry when all of the tanks get blown up by the Russians? And we’ll say ‘Effectively we gave all of them these tanks, what a waste of cash.’ Effectively, most likely all we needed to do was observe our personal rulebook and provides them what they have to be efficient with joint built-in fires.”