A group of US military veterans currently training Ukrainian soldiers has said Ukraine needs more NATO weapons to win its war with Russia. Mozart Group officials told Newsweek that the modern-day artillery would help Ukrainian forces repel the Russian attack. The Mozart Group is a group of U.S. Army veterans assisting in the training of Ukrainian soldiers. Founded at the start of the war in Ukraine by Andrew Milburn, a veteran Marine, the group has been described as the western counterpart to Putin’s elite Wagner Group. “It’s a little lazy,” Martin Veterauer, a Marine veteran and chief business officer of the Mozart Group, told Newsweek from the organisation’s outpost in Zaporizhia. Wetterauer told the agency that the Ukrainians were under heavy fire from Russian artillery and said that NATO artillery systems and aircraft would be needed to help eliminate Russian defensive lines in the Donbas region. Steve K., the group’s chief operating officer, who declined to give his full name to Newsweek, agreed with Wetterauer and highlighted the US multi-launcher missile system and the high-mobility artillery system as vital tools for the Ukrainian war effort. “They need artillery, they need cartridges,” Steve K. told the agency. “If we do not continue with this supply, they will not be able to keep them.” According to Newsweek, Wetterauer added that the Ukrainians do not underestimate the capabilities of the Russians and expressed their belief in their chances of winning if they receive the appropriate equipment. “If we can increase all of their skills, then over time we hope they will have better and more advanced weapons systems,” Wetterauer said, according to the store. “With the fighting spirit they have, there is no doubt that they will overthrow this war. It will just take some time.” Ukrainian forces are currently in a critical battle in the Donbas region, which has come under heavy artillery fire from Russian troops. In June, Ukraine estimated that Russia had 10 to 15 times more artillery than its forces, calling on the West to send more weapons. This week, there were reports that cases of starvation were rising among Ukrainian forces after suffering heavy casualties. A senior US official also told the Washington Post this week that Russia was likely to gain control of eastern Ukraine within weeks after doubling its military efforts in Donbas. However, information from the United Kingdom suggests that Russia may soon find it difficult to produce enough military equipment to fuel a protracted conflict in Ukraine.
