Ukraine

Ukraine can win war if West ramps up support, ex-commander says

Ukraine "will achieve their military objectives" so long as the West continues to provide the support necessary "and indeed ramps it up", a former Nato commander has said.

"All the indications are that Russian morale is rock bottom, whereas the Ukrainian tails are very firmly up," Richard Shirreff, the former Nato Deputy Supreme Allied Commander, told the Sitrep podcast.

He highlighted that Ukraine has "given a masterclass in operational design, operational manoeuvre and operational art".

The former Nato commander believes that the Ukrainians should be supplied with "whatever they need to beat the Russians".

"Any sort of distinction between offensive and defensive weapons is utterly invidious... they should be given all the capabilities required for offensive land manoeuvre.

"Tanks, armoured infantry fighting vehicles, the armoured engineers, the air defence, they need aircraft as well, of course, as well as the long-range precision missiles and long-range artillery, which has already had a significant effect on the Russians."

He added: "But they also need the continued support in terms of cyber and intelligence and targeting. Give them the tools to do the job and they will do the job, of that I have no doubt."

Watch: UK sending world's most advanced air defence missile to support Ukraine.

Mr Shirreff added that "we have to recognise we need to be ready for war. In a sense, we really are at war already, and we've got to be ready for it.

"That means investing in the equipment, the spurs, the logistics, the ammunition, that means tooling up the industry to churn out the capabilities required.

"A huge amount of weaponry, anti-tank missiles, artillery ammunition, long-range artillery missiles and the like have been given to Ukraine, those not only need to be replaced, but we need to have war stocks in our own force as well.

"I suspect if you dug into the detail in the Ministry of Defence (MOD), we are woefully short," he added.