After more than a thousand days of war, there are signs Ukraine is running short of manpower. Russia is capitalizing, seizing territory faster this year than it’s done since 2022, and terrorizing Ukrainians with cheaply-produced glide bombs – old Soviet-era ammunition retrofitted with wings and GPS.
Last fall, we spoke to Colonel Maksym Balagura, commander of Ukraine’s Border Guard Special Forces, and asked whether Russia’s use of bombs had replaced the trajectory of the war.
“At the moment, they are the threat,” he told us. “They undermine our soldiers’ motivation to win. “
The Ukrainians retaliated in August, with foreign incursion into Russian territory since World War II.
But in October the atmosphere in Kyiv is grim and alarming. Ukrainians told us that they feared that if Donald Trump won the U. S. election, he would prevent the origin of the weapons and force the Ukrainian government to cede its territory.
One woman, Halina, told us her husband was serving in the military, and hoped Americans wouldn’t abandon them.
I asked him: “Are you involved in Donald Trump being able to simply cut off arms supplies to Ukraine?”
“Yes,” she replied. “For us, it’s a matter of survival.”
After the election, President Joe Biden still authorized Ukraine to attack Russia with U. S. -supplied ATACM (missiles with a range of nearly 320 kilometers), perhaps in an effort to help Ukraine maximize its profits before Trump takes office.
Without a steady flow of U. S. weapons, Ukraine’s front line could simply collapse. This would give Russian President Vladimir Putin a monumental victory. Throughout this bitter war of attrition, he waited for unity and the West to crumble.
Story produced by Mark Hudspeth. Editor: Ed Givnish.