This has included sophisticated anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons, including some of the best in the US and European inventories, like the Javelin and NLAW anti-tank missiles and the Stinger anti-aircraft missile. These have allowed the Ukrainians to inflict heavy losses on the Russians and prevent them occupying all but one or two of the major cities.
This effort has been joined by states that hitherto were either explicitly neutral (Sweden, Switzerland, Finland) or that had decided for historical reasons to refrain from supplying weapons to overseas conflicts (Germany). According to this article, the Czech republic alone sent 10,000 rocket-propelled grenades in a single week.
In the space of two weeks, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has set off one of the largest and fastest arms transfers in history.
By road and rail, the Czech Republic sent 10,000 rocket-propelled grenades to Ukraine’s defenders last week alone. In Poland, the provincial airport of Rzeszow located about 60 miles from the Ukrainian border has been so crowded with military cargo jets that on Saturday some flights were briefly diverted until airfield space became available.
On the country’s highways, police vehicles are escorting military transport trucks to the border, with other convoys slipping into Ukraine via snow-covered back roads through the mountains.
The race to deliver arms to Ukraine is emerging as a supply operation with few historical parallels. Western allies, having ruled out putting troops on the ground in Ukraine, have been attempting to equip the country’s thinly spread and outmatched military, some of its soldiers fighting without boots.