Despite Western arms, Ukraine is outgunned in the east; Ukraine Hits Oil Crimean Drilling Platforms; ‘Everything is on fire’: Ukraine region weathers bombardment; Ukraine on course for EU candidacy at summit, EU says, LIVE UPDATES and MORE

Despite Western arms, Ukraine is outgunned in the east:

Holed up in a bombed-out house in eastern Ukraine, Ukrainian troops keep a careful accounting of their ammunition, using a door as a sort of ledger. Scrawled in chalk on the door are figures for mortar shells, smoke shells, shrapnel shells, flares.

Despite the heavy influx of weapons from the West, Ukrainian forces are outgunned by the Russians in the battle for the eastern Donbas region, where the fighting is largely being carried out by way of artillery exchanges.

While the Russians can keep up heavy, continuous fire for hours at a time, the defenders can’t match the enemy in either weapons or ammunition and must use their ammo more judiciously.

At the outpost in eastern Ukraine, dozens and dozens of mortar shells are stacked up. But the troops’ commander, Mykhailo Strebizh, who goes by the nom de guerre Gaiduk, lamented that if his fighters were to come under an intense artillery barrage, their cache would, at best, amount to only about four hours’ worth of return fire.

Ukrainian authorities say the West’s much-ballyhooed support for the country is not sufficient and is not arriving on the battlefield fast enough for this grinding and highly lethal phase of the war. —>READ MORE HERE

Ukraine Hits Oil Crimean Drilling Platforms, Pro-Russian Regional Head Says

Ukrainian forces attacked drilling platforms in the Black Sea owned by a Crimean oil and gas company, the pro-Russian head of the annexed peninsula said on Monday, giving no details of what weapons were used.

Three people were wounded and a search was under way for seven workers from the Chernomorneftegaz energy company, Sergei Askyonov, the Russian-installed head of Crimea, said in a post on Telegram.

Crimean officials said work on three drilling platforms had been suspended after the hit, with fires reported.

Reuters was unable to immediately verify the reports. Ukraine’s military declined to comment.

Russian-backed officials seized Chernomorneftegaz from Ukraine’s national gas operator Naftogaz as part of Moscow’s annexation of the peninsula in 2014. The company is under U.S. and European Union sanctions. —>READ MORE HERE

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