Ukrainian soldiers mastered Western artillery in just two weeks while the country stands ready to switch its weaponry to NATO standards within a month, Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov has told The Economist.
"As comrade Churchill said, give us the tools and we’ll finish the job," Reznikov argued.
"We need assistance, quickly," said the minister, "because the cost of any delay is measured in Ukrainian blood".
According to The Economist, Reznikov strains to be polite about cracks in the Western alliance. Fatigue is "a natural psychological reaction to stress"; politicians have "domestic issues" to worry about; leaders have the "obligation to think through consequences".
If war has taught him one thing, he said, it is that Ukraine's allies speak more about human rights and freedom than defending them.
"The West's bureaucracy and pragmatism turned out to be much stronger than its values," he said.
"Either the world doesn't quite understand what is happening," he argued, "or it does understand, is tired, and is content with a few Ukrainians dying."
Reznikov insists Ukrainians will never accept territorial concessions to a regime that has spilled so much Ukrainian blood.
"They are trying to create enough chaos, panic and fear to make us sign an act of capitulation," he says. "It hasn't worked. We're not even a tiny bit close to being in that kind of mood."