The Ukrainian army lacks modern weapons and equipment provided by Western allies, but soldiers and commanders say that the need for basic resources is greater than that for Tomahawk missiles.
Although Kyiv has hoped for the United States to finally greenlight the supply of long-range Tomahawk missiles, Ukrainian military personnel believe that the lack of more basic needs is a more pressing issue, and often the absence of vital, even more rudimentary equipment plays an equally important role.
Ukrainian military personnel explained to Kyiv Independent what they are actually missing the most on the frontlines, even more than Tomahawk missiles.
### Machines
Ihor, a company commander, says that his infantry unit currently has only two functional vehicles, as three others have become inoperable either due to Russian drone attacks or the often dangerous roads in eastern Ukraine.
A typical infantry company, at this stage of the war, has around 50-70 people.
Ihor’s unit lacks armored vehicles because they are prime targets for the Russians and are usually quickly destroyed. But even armored equipment, such as mine-resistant vehicles like the US-made MaxxPro or Turkey-made Kirpi, are noisier and harder to accelerate than regular cars, making it more difficult to evade and escape Russian FPV drones, Ihor says.
As Russia constantly intensifies its „cat and mouse game” with FPV drones, which now have a range of about 20 kilometers, the gray zone extends up to five kilometers from the front, significantly paralyzing Ukrainian logistics.
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Ihor’s unit relies on vehicles to transport soldiers, with their speed and mobility allowing them to drive from 500 meters to a kilometer away from positions. However, the vehicles are quickly destroyed or damaged by the poor roads in Donbas, and soldiers have to pay for repairs out of their own pockets as fundraising takes too long.
Charitable foundations have reported receiving fewer donations from the public as the war drags on.
Ideally, Ihor’s unit would have five functional vehicles so that when one is destroyed, another can immediately take its place.
However, an infantry company usually has only one vehicle that they use to transport people to the front, deliver food and weapons, even though these operations usually need to be carried out simultaneously, explains Vladîslav Urubkov, procurement manager at the Come Back Alive charitable foundation.
Since the war broke out, the most requested vehicles have been pick-up trucks and minibusses according to Andrii But, head of the HeroCar project under the charitable foundation of Ruslan Shostak, which provides vehicles to the Armed Forces.
But noted that the organization also sees an increasing demand for motorcycles, especially cross-country types, from frontline units.
### Drones
Due to the constant loss of drones, either because they are shot down by Russian troops or due to electronic warfare, Ukrainian forces often lack drones and launch fundraising campaigns to help cover the replacement costs.
Illia, commander of an anti-drone platoon in the 80th Airborne Brigade deployed in Sumy Region, emphasized that there is a shortage of everything, from drones to personnel.
He says his unit lacks the necessary reconnaissance drones to see beyond the visual line, preventing them from „seeing anything beyond five kilometers” and disrupting Russian logistics. The platoon needs ten times more drones than those provided, he mentions.
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The issue is that resources are not evenly distributed among Ukrainian units, allowing some to have more than others. For example, some drone pilots from other units, such as those from the Unmanned Aerial System Forces of Ukraine and the 82nd Airborne Brigade, have stated that they have enough drones.
The Ukrainian army uses around 9,000 drones per day, causing approximately 85% of damage to Russian equipment and troops, compared to Russia’s 67%, according to Dmytro Zhmaylo, co-founder and executive director of the Ukrainian Center for Security and Cooperation, a Kiev-based think tank.
As Ukrainian infantry units are often „exhausted” in terms of personnel, especially young recruits, drones are particularly important in an army where the average age of a soldier is around 40, Zhmaylo said.
### People
Ukrainian military experts emphasize that the main shortage of the Ukrainian army is personnel. Zhmaylo says that sometimes certain Ukrainian units may have large quantities of drones, but they lack operators to pilot them.
Serhii Hrabskyi, a retired Ukrainian colonel and military analyst, believes that well-trained reserves are what the army lacks the most.
The Ukrainian army has always faced an increasing shortage of soldiers since fewer people started volunteering to join the army in 2023, after the initial influx of volunteers who went to fight.
Although mobilization continues, many units – especially in the infantry – face a critical shortage of personnel in battle-hardened brigades, which have had to deal with significant losses after intense fighting in hotspots on the frontlines. Soldiers are often sent to positions for weeks, and even months in some cases, due to the lack of new trained recruits and challenges with infiltrating and exfiltrating in the era of drones.
On the other hand, the Russian army accumulates troops every month, recruiting more people than the losses on the front, acknowledged in August by the chief commander of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Oleksandr Syrskyi.
Moreover, out of the approximately 30,000 people that Kyiv says it is mobilizing, about half are military personnel who have gone absent without leave, according to another Ukrainian official.
The Ukrainian command still frequently sends recruits to newly formed units, which lack experience on the battlefield or in general quarters, instead of filling the gaps in battle-hardened brigades, emphasizes Bogdan Daniliv, head of the military affairs department at the Serhiy Prytula charitable foundation.
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Training centers also often lack the necessary resources to properly train new soldiers, forcing them, for example, to use dummy grenades or stones instead of real grenades to practice throwing, he adds. And that is a major problem because the „lethal zones” of drones continue to expand from both sides, making it extremely dangerous to approach the front line.
„I would even say that it is no longer a matter of material needs. There are not enough people, there is not enough proper coordination, there is not enough communication between units (and between different ranks),” Daniliv points out.