World Affairs International

Ukraine has been invited to a multitude of meetings by international organizations, including the NATO summit in Madrid and a meeting of the G7 in Germany. This follows positive developments in Ukraine’s desire to join the European Union, as well as an escalation in pledged Western equipment.

The United States claimed that shipments of rocket artillery would begin to arrive in Ukraine by late June. With Russia having exhausted much of its precision-guided weapons, striking these shipments as well as rocket artillery from other nations, including howitzers and tanks, will likely be difficult. Though Russia is making gains in Sievierodonetsk, the city remains contested. Ukrainian troops have begun setting up artillery in neighboring Lysychansk, firing on positions in Sievierodonetsk to bleed the Russian forces there.

Whether or not Russian forces take Sievierodonetsk before Ukraine receives more heavy weapons, they still face the challenge of crossing the Siverskyi-Donets river, which Russia has lost many troops and vehicles attempting to ford. Whether or not Ukraine chooses to move more heavy weapons into the area (they previously moved S-300 air defenses quite close to the Donbas), Ukraine has indicated that if it received the necessary equipment, it could launch a larger counteroffensive before September. Such an offensive could finally deliver the ‘visible’ map results Ukraine desperately needs, without which many Western citizens without intimate knowledge of the situation on the ground have felt hopeless.