- In Washington, much of the debate over helping Ukraine has focused on bombs and missiles.
- But on a recent trip, medics told one expert that what they really need is more basic.
Ukraine needs missiles, bullets, tanks, and fighter jets. It also needs to keep as many of its soldiers alive as possible if it is to continue fighting a much larger, more powerful adversary — and there, according to an expert who recently visited the front lines, Ukraine's allies are failing it.
On an early October trip, Melinda Haring, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, met with soldiers and first responders in Zaporizhzhia, a southeastern region of Ukraine that has been the scene of fierce fighting and is home to Europe's largest nuclear power plant and tens of thousands of Russian troops, who occupy about two-thirds of the oblast.
"The medic that I spoke to said they need more armored cars," Haring said. "He does not have enough armored cars to get his guys out, and it's an acute need. And so he has people bleed out because he can't evacuate them to a hospital. It's particularly bad in the summer. It's less bad in the winter."
The reason Ukrainian medics may enjoy some respite in the winter is they can transport people from the battlefield using the cover of darkness. Light is the enemy, which means "June and July are hard months," Harding said.
Armored vehicles aren't the only thing Ukraine's medics would like. Additionally, Harding said, there's "a need for tourniquets," without which injured soldiers would bleed out in armored vehicles.
About 70,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed since Russia launched its full-scale invasion, according to a US estimate reported by The New York Times in August; between 100,000 and 120,000 have also been wounded.
The United States has provided Ukraine with at least 300 armored medical vehicles, according to the State Department. Volunteers have also raised money to send over thousands of tourniquets. But what may have come into Ukraine in good working order is no longer in that condition today — and so long as there are wounded people, Ukraine will always need more bandages.
"I think allies have supplied a lot of this equipment, but this is more than 600 days of war," Harding said. "And this is a hot war, and they're burning through equipment very quickly. They're burning through shells very quickly. You can use a tourniquet once, and then you got to throw it out. And ambulances don't last very long. Armored cars don't last very long."
Whether Ukraine gets more of what it needs will be hotly debated in Washington, where this week pro-Ukraine activists and some Ukrainian soldiers met with lawmakers and urged them to back President Joe Biden's request for more than $60 billion in additional support.