US aid could buy Kyiv time, but Ukraine needs many more troops

A member of Ukraine's 57th brigade carries an artillery shell at a position at the outskirts of Kupiansk. Photo: Reuters

Tom Balmforth and Charlotte Bruneau

For the exhausted Ukrainian artillery gunners holding off Russian forces near the eastern town of Kupiansk, the U.S. aid package expected to finally pass this week is a lifeline and, potentially, a gamechanger, although that could take some time.

"If they'd passed it (earlier), it would have changed the situation dramatically," said one soldier, call sign "Sailor", who said a shortage of shells had reduced their covering fire for infantrymen, costing lives and territory.