Ukraine has received just 10 percent of the weapons it requested from the West to help fight off the Russian offensive, the country’s deputy defense minister said Tuesday.
"From what we said we need, we got about 10 percent," Anna Malyar said in televised remarks quoted by AFP, saying the West should speed up its delivery schedule.
"No matter how hard Ukraine tries, no matter how professional our army is, without the help of Western partners we will not be able to win this war," she added.
There should be "a clear timeframe" for such deliveries as every delay cost Ukraine dearly and risked more territory falling into Russian hands.
"We need to know clear deadlines because every day there's a delay, we're talking about the lives of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians," said Malyar.
"We can't wait very long, because the situation is very complicated," she added, referring to the creeping Russian advance in Donbas, where Moscow's forces are poised to take over the entire Lugansk region.
Earlier on Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy again appealed for heavy weapons from the West, criticizing what he called the "restrained behavior" of some European leaders which he said had "slowed down arms supplies very much".
"I am grateful for what is coming, but it must come faster," he told Danish journalists in an online briefing.
He noted that Russia had "hundreds of times more equipment and weapons" than Ukraine which did not have enough "long-range weapons" nor "armored vehicles, and because of that we are losing people," he said.
Ukrainian deputy head of Military Intelligence Vadym Skibitsky warned several days ago that Ukraine is close to running out of ammunition as the country’s forces continue to fight against Russian troops.
He said that donations from other countries were enough to supply artillery on the battlefield but that Ukraine was still at a disadvantage compared to Russia.
"Everything now depends on what [the west] gives us," Skibitsky said. "Ukraine has one artillery piece to 10 to 15 Russian artillery pieces. Our western partners have given us about 10 percent of what they have."