KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian officials, though still concerned that advanced Western weapons are not arriving fast enough, are increasingly confident that their Western allies will eventually give them long-range artillery and even fighter jets.
“We will get that long-range artillery, that’s for sure,” Oleksiy Danilov, the head of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council, said in an interview. “We would have loved to have them yesterday. Once we get them, Russians will feel it immediately.”
In the race to secure arms for the brutal next phase of the war against Russia, Kyiv is also concerned that Moscow could turn to its own allies to replenish its arsenal. A top concern among Ukrainian military and government officials is that Russia could acquire ballistic missiles from Iran, although Mr. Danilov said that there was no evidence it had yet done so.
Among the weapons Ukraine is seeking — after securing pledges of battle tanks and armored vehicles in recent weeks — is advanced fighter jets. President Biden in January ruled out supplying fighter jets to Ukraine, but officials in Kyiv remain optimistic that its Western allies will find a way to get the warplanes to Ukraine.
Last week, Britain said it would begin training Ukrainian pilots to fly modern fighter jets, and NATO’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said on Monday that the issue of aircraft would be discussed at a meeting of the alliance’s defense ministers that is scheduled to begin on Tuesday in Brussels. Mr. Danilov expressed confidence that Ukraine’s allies would agree to its request for jets, but he said it was too early to speculate about the kind of aircraft it would be given.
“Let’s wait a little and we will see what we get,” he said.
From the beginning of the war, the United States and Ukraine’s other Western allies have carefully calibrated weapons deliveries to Ukraine, holding back more powerful weapons to avoid provoking Russia. But after a string of battlefield successes, Ukraine has convinced its allies to drop a series of taboos and provide more powerful offensive arms.
The head of the Ukrainian presidential office, Andriy Yermak, said last week that the issue concerning fighter jets and longer-range weapons “seems like it can be solved.”
Moscow’s desire for ballistic missiles from Tehran poses a different problem for Ukraine, Mr. Danilov said. Western officials have identified Iran as the primary supplier of drones to Russia for use in the war in Ukraine, and in recent months they have said that they believe Russia is also trying to obtain Iranian missiles to use in the conflict.
“If Russia can persuade Iran to do such an operation, it will be an additional challenge for us,” Mr. Danilov said.
Russian attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure, in part using Iranian drones, have increased in recent days after a brief respite. On Friday, Russia fired more than 100 drones, rockets and missiles at Ukrainian cities.
Before Friday’s barrage, Ukrainian intelligence estimated that Russia had used approximately 660 Iranian-made Shahed drones in the war in Ukraine. They recently received another 250 to 300 as part of a contract to provide 1,750 units, Vadym Skibitskyi, a spokesman for Ukrainian military intelligence, said last week.
Iranian-made drones used in Russian attacks on Ukrainian targets in October had been modified to carry metal fragments and extra charges to inflict greater damage, according to a recent report by a team from the Conflict Armament Research group, an independent organization based in Britain that tracks arms used around the world.
Mr. Danilov said that Ukraine is working with allies to try to disrupt arms supplies between Russia and Iran.
“We do everything possible and impossible to prevent this from happening,” he said.
