Russia may now be facing "tremendous" military difficulties in Ukraine, according to one European politician, as aid from foreign allies potentially turns the tables on the months-long conflict.
The supply of military aid to Ukraine by the United States and other countries is reportedly being coordinated at a U.S. installation near Stuttgart, Germany. The U.S. is now helping around 50 nations provide such aid to Ukraine, according to a report from German public broadcaster, Deutsche Welle (DW), including the much-touted High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), and PzH 2000 self-propelled howitzers from Germany and the Netherlands.
Speaking with DW on Saturday, Nico Lange, a German lawmaker and chief of staff for the country's Federal Minister of Defense, said that this significant influx of military aid to Ukraine is changing the dynamic of the Russian invasion.
"The crucial aspect of the past few days is that Russia is now being forced to react to the Ukrainians' statements and actions," Lange said. "Until now, it was the other way around: The Ukrainians were forced to react to everything Russia did."
Lange continued, saying that Russia has "moved significant forces to the south, toward both Kherson and Zaporizhzhia," two regions in Southern Ukraine that have mostly fallen under Russian occupation. They have also in recent weeks become the focus of significant counteroffensives by Ukrainian forces aiming to retake them.
"A Ukrainian attack will not look like the Russians': this rolling barrage that destroys everything in its path," Lange said. "Rather, it will also rely on partisans, on uprisings in the occupied cities, on mobile operations behind enemy lines."
He added: "The Russians are having great problems controlling these areas. There is a lot of partisan activity in the occupied part of Zaporizhzhia oblast. Russian patrols are being killed at night. In Melitopol, too, as in Kherson, there are posters directed against the Russian occupiers, there are leafleting campaigns. Something new is constantly being put up."
Russia is now unable to "escalate indefinitely" in Ukraine, Lange said, adding that they are facing "tremendous" difficulty in continuing the conflict.
Newsweek reached out to Ukrainian defense officials for comment.
Provided by the U.S. as part of its aid to Ukraine, the M142 HIMARS has been called a "gamechanger" in the country's battle against Russia. Able to be loaded with six precise GPS-guided missiles, a HIMARS is capable of hitting targets up to 300 km away.
Initially provided in June, a senior U.S. defense official claimed that by late July, Ukrainian forces had used HIMARS to destroy over 100 "high value" Russian targets.
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