U.S and allied weapons aid to Ukraine are holding Russian forces at bay.

The spirit and experience of fighting with Western weapons are two factors that aid Ukraine in posing numerous challenges to Russian forces’ operations.

The Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley said that the Ukrainian military had succeeded in the first phases of the operations, but warned that the conflict would continue. 

The Ukrainian army’s resistance spirit and combat experience against a much stronger opponent is a key factor. When Russia launched its military campaign with a force of approximately 150,000 troops and overwhelming advantages in air, armoured vehicles, and long-range missiles in all three attack directions the Ukrainian military units did not panic and disintegrate.

The U.S intelligence community did not believe the Ukrainian army could hold off Russian forces for more than a week, But the Ukrainian government and army gained valuable combat experience and learned to use asymmetric warfare to its advantage. 

Instead of forming large formations, the Ukrainian infantry divided into squads to avoid being surrounded and suppressed, and then launched rapid attacks to retreat quickly into the enemy’s formation. Now the Ukrainian army is bolstered with a variety of modern weapons supplied by the West.

Since Russia launched a military campaign in Ukraine, about 20 countries, the majority of which are NATO members and members of the European Union (EU), have poured weapons, primarily anti-tank guided missiles into the country.

The Javelin and NLAW missiles developed by the United States and the United Kingdom are considered the world’s most dangerous “tank killers,” capable of defeating many modern Russian and other major power tanks. 

Kiev also benefits from investments in particularly the Bayraktar TB2 series of Turkish-made UAVs. They are difficult to detect by enemy air defences due to their small size and radar cross-section, and each aircraft carries a large number of light surface-to-surface missiles, allowing them to strike key Russian targets such as launch vehicles. technical logistics vehicles, anti-aircraft missiles.