Ukraine’s allies are shifting focus from donating weapons to fixing them as Western-supplied armor proves resilient to Russian fire, reports say

• Ukraine’s allies are shifting focus from donating weapons to repairing what is already there, a report says.
• This shift in strategy reflects the acknowledgement that the war is expected to carry on for some time.
• Ukraine’s counteroffensive has seen many Western-donated vehicles be damaged, and repairing them is crucial.

The West’s focus on supporting Ukraine’s war effort has shifted from donating more weapons to repairing and sustaining what they already have, a report says.

This shift in strategy reflects the acknowledgment that the war is expected to carry on for some time, a Pentagon top acquisition official told Politico. 

“We’re setting up repair facilities in Europe, we’re translating training and repair manuals, we have to do much more together, so there’s going to be more of a focus on that” by partner nations, the Pentagon’s acquisition and sustainment chief William LaPlante told the outlet.

Since Ukraine began its counteroffensive to take back occupied territory from Russia, some of its Western-donated equipment, such as US-made Bradley fighting vehicles and German Leopard tanks, has been lost or damaged.

Russia’s defense lines have proved harder to penetrate than expected, and Ukrainian forces have found themselves coming up against dense minefields.

But, hundreds of hardy armored vehicles donated by the West have been credited as life-saving by Ukrainian soldiers, who say the vehicles protect them and minimize injuries, per several reports

If possible to repair, getting those vehicles fixed and back in action is a high priority, per Politico. 

The Times of London visited a secret repair workshop close to the frontline where they saw evidence of Western-supplied armored vehicles being worked on to return to the battle, including vehicles that had taken a direct hit from a tank but were only lightly damaged. 

“To be honest, the soldiers are all surprised at the ability of these vehicles to withstand fire,” Serhii Ivanov, a lieutenant who is overseeing the repair of a British-built Wolfhound armored vehicle.

“They really save lives. After a few battles in one of these, no one wants to go back to the old Soviet BTR or anything like it. By comparison, that’s a coffin, a 100 percent chance of death,” he told The Times.

The US-made  mine-resistant armored fighting vehicles have also been hailed by Ukrainian troops as being “almost indestructible.”

A 22-nation working group led by the US, Poland, and the UK is working to keep billions of dollars worth of equipment that is already in Ukraine working so it can continue with its counteroffensive.

The group coordinates repair facilities and has helped Ukraine set up a supply support effort to help track high-demand spare parts.

Since the beginning of the war, scores of countries have committed to sending billions of dollars worth of equipment to Ukraine. The diversity of the equipment coming from multiple supply lines poses challenges for Kyiv, Politico noted.

Readiness rates of equipment have also been a concern for Ukraine, as it is primarily using either decades-old Russian equipment or weapons that are still relatively new to them.

Some of the equipment sent to Ukraine from its Western allies have arrived in need of repair, and most of the serious repair work needs to be done in places like Poland or Czechia.

By comparison, Russia has much larger stockpiles of equipment that it has been able to continue to draw upon.

Despite challenges, Ukraine’s allies have managed to establish a repair infrastructure over the past year, LaPlante told Politico, and teams on the ground are able to “instantly get that information, and then we find the fix, and we get it working.”

“And I really want to give the credit to the Ukrainians, they’re the ones doing it,” he said. “But we’re making sure that they have everything that they need. And if the parts have to come from a country halfway around the world, we make sure we get it to them. So the sustainment is actually most of the work going on right now.”