FILLING A DESPERATE NEED: The pleas from Ukraine for long-range multiple-launch rocket systems to counter Russian overmatch in the Donbas have grown increasingly desperate over the last several weeks. The Ukrainians said they needed longer range artillery yesterday.

Ukrainian forces were taking heavy casualties on the front lines, and could not hit back at the Russian guns, which were out of range of U.S.-supplied howitzers. “The most difficult situation is in the east of Ukraine and southern Donetsk and Luhansk,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in an interview with Newsmax. “We’re losing 60-100 soldiers per day as killed in action and something around 500 people as wounded in action.”

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