Ukraine pleads for fast arms delivery

KYIV, Ukraine — President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine has implored allies to speed up delivery of weapons as Russia intensifies its assaults on eastern Ukraine and sends waves of troops in an effort to break through heavy Ukrainian defenses.

“Russia hopes to drag out the war, to exhaust our forces,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly address on Sunday. “So we have to make time our weapon. We must speed up the events, speed up the supply and opening of new necessary weaponry options for Ukraine.”

The United States and several European countries last week pledged to send dozens of battle tanks, among the most powerful weapons they have promised to Ukraine, but Western officials have said that it could be months before the tanks are delivered.

Zelenskyy’s appeal for both speedier deliveries of promised weapons and faster decisions on sending additional arms — including long-range missiles and even fighter jets — comes amid warnings that Moscow plans to launch a major offensive in the coming weeks, a year after Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Western allies have not publicly indicated if they will provide fighter jets, but over the course of the war, they have sent Ukraine an ever-expanding array of advanced weapons that many once thought were offlimits.

Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesperson, said on Monday that further supplies of Western weaponry to Ukraine would lead to “significant escalation” of the conflict.

Military experts and allies say that in the coming weeks, Ukraine will also mount an offensive aimed at driving Russia out of occupied areas.