As Ukraine desperately awaits the arrival of new U.S. weapons and equipment approved last month, Russia is seeking to make the most of the remaining window.

Moscow’s forces in the past week have taken several villages in eastern Ukraine after Kyiv’s threadbare army ceded ground, and they are positioned to secure additional territory in the days ahead.

Russia’s relentless missile and drone strikes have also been increasingly effective as Ukraine runs short on defensive weapons to counter the attacks.

But Russia’s window for exploiting Ukraine’s weakness is swiftly closing, with limited time before American weapons flood the battlefield and reinvigorate the Ukrainian forces, experts say.

“Knowing that the renewed aid is on the way, Ukraine’s stiffening up their defenses. I think [Russians] are still trying to sort of push as the window closes,” Steven Horrell, a nonresident senior fellow with the Center for European Policy Analysis, told The Hill.

And Michael O’Hanlon, an expert with the Brookings Institution think tank in Washington, said Russia’s forces could “pick up the pace, and the carnage, by 10 to 20 percent” in the gap between the U.S. announcing new aid last week and when those weapons reach Ukrainian troops.

The Defense Department last week announced a $1 billion package for Ukraine shortly after President Biden signed a national security supplemental into law. Much of the weapons tranche, which aims to deliver critical artillery rounds and air defense munitions to Kyiv, was already pre-positioned in Europe to be able to quickly move it into Ukraine, according to the Pentagon.

“As soon as we were able to announce that $1 billion … we were ready to support Ukraine almost immediately,” Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh said Wednesday.

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She was not able to say, however, whether the lethal assistance had reached the front lines and the units that need them the most.

Another $6 billion package announced last week was not from U.S. stocks, and could take months if not years to get to Ukraine.

U.S. and Ukrainian officials and lawmakers lauded the passage of the $95 billion supplemental, which includes roughly $61 billion to support Kyiv, but Congress’s months-long delay before sending the bill to Biden’s desk proved damaging to the embattled country.

Most U.S. assistance to Ukraine dried up at the end of 2023, making Ukrainian troops desperate for ammunition and air defenses as Russia pressed forward on the battlefield and pummeled key cities and energy infrastructure with artillery, drones and bombs.

“It is good that Congress finally passed the aid package to Ukraine. The months of delay were very costly,” Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) said during a House Armed Services Committee hearing Tuesday.

Shortly after the latest U.S. assistance was announced, Ukrainian troops pulled back from several villages captured by Russia’s army in the eastern Donetsk region, including Berdychi, Semenivka and Novomykhailivka.

Ukraine’s commander in chief, Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, said Sunday that the “situation at the front has worsened” and that Russia had used its advantage in men and ammunition to push toward the towns of Kurakhove and Pokrovsk, also in the Donetsk.

In addition, Moscow’s military is pressing to capture Ocheretyne, a small rural town in eastern Ukraine where Kyiv’s forces are struggling to hold the defensive line, according to a battlefield assessment released Wednesday by Hudson Institute.

“Last week, Moscow’s widening artillery advantage and Kyiv’s stumbling mobilization efforts allowed Russian forces to make significant battlefield advances and tactical gains on multiple fronts,” the assessment found.

“In the meantime, Russian air and missile strikes continued to pound major Ukrainian population centers.”

And the Institute for the Study of War reported Monday that “Russian forces will likely continue to make tactical gains” around the major town of Avdiivka in the coming weeks.

Russia has been pushing ahead more aggressively this spring, in part to seize the initiative after the delay of U.S. aid to Ukrainian defenders.

John Herbst, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, predicted Russia may speed up its offensive — which was launched in mid-fall — given the speed with which the U.S. is flowing its aid into Ukraine.

“It certainly is a greater period of danger until a good bulk of the aid arrives,” said Herbst, now a senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center.

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But he added that he believes the most dangerous moment has already passed, given that the Ukrainians, in turn, have stepped up their use of weapons they have rationed since last fall, with the knowledge that they will soon be backfilled.

“I think they’ll lose very little or no territory, starting in two to three or four weeks,” Herbst said of the Ukrainians.

Britain's Cameron, in Kyiv, promises Ukraine aid for 'as long as it takes'

 British Foreign Secretary David Cameron promised three billion pounds ($3.74 billion) of annual military aid for Ukraine for "as long as it takes" on Thursday, adding that London had no objection to the weapons being used inside Russia.

"We will give three billion pounds every year for as long as is necessary. We've just really emptied all we can in terms of giving equipment," he told Reuters in an interview on a visit to in Kyiv, adding that the aid package was the largest from the UK so far.

"Some of that (equipment) is actually arriving in Ukraine today, while I'm here," he said.

Cameron said Ukraine had a right to use the weapons provided by London to strike targets inside Russia, and that it was up to Kyiv whether to do so.

"Ukraine has that right. Just as Russia is striking inside Ukraine, you can quite understand why Ukraine feels the need to make sure it's defending itself," Cameron told Reuters outside St. Michael's Cathedral.

Cameron, who led the UK from 2010 and 2016 as prime minister and only returned to frontline politics several months ago, met Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on his second visit to Kyiv as foreign secretary.

Britain's top diplomat celebrated the release of a long-delayed $60 billion aid package by the U.S. Congress.

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"It's absolutely crucial, not just in terms of the weapons it will bring, but also the boost to morale that it will bring to people here in Ukraine."

However, Cameron did not answer directly when asked how he thought the possible re-election of Republican frontrunner Donald Trump to the White House could affect U.S. support for Ukraine.

Trump and hardline Republicans in Congress oppose further aid to Ukraine, with the possible exception of a loan.

"It's not for us to decide who the Americans choose as their president - we will work with whoever that is," Cameron said, adding that the strategy for Ukraine's allies ought to be to ensure Ukraine is on the front foot by the time of the U.S. elections in November.

Cameron: Kyiv has right to use UK weapons for strikes in Russia

Lord Cameron on Friday backed Ukrainian strikes against targets inside Russia using British-supplied weapons.

The Foreign Secretary said it was a decision for Ukraine how to use the equipment and Kyiv “absolutely has the right” to strike back at Russia. The UK has supplied billions of pounds-worth of arms including long-range Storm Shadow missiles to Volodymyr Zelensky’s forces.

On a visit to Kyiv, Lord Cameron said: “In terms of what the Ukrainians do, in our view, it is their decision about how to use these weapons.

“They’re defending their country, they were illegally invaded by [Vladimir] Putin and they must take those steps... Let’s be absolutely clear, Russia has launched an attack into Ukraine and Ukraine absolutely has the right to strike back.”

Asked if that included targets inside Russia, he said: “That’s a decision for Ukraine and Ukraine has that right. ”

His comments came as new Europe minister Nusrat Ghani hailed the “absolute determination” of people in Britain to see Putin defeated as a driving force behind military aid being sent to Kyiv. She said that MPs were being bolstered by their constituents to be “steadfast” in backing Ukraine for the long-term in its battle against the “totalitarian imperialist”.

Britain has led the West in providing equipment, first with anti-tank weapons, then Challenger II tanks and Storm Shadow long-range missiles.

With the war now in its third year, the Foreign Office minister argued that the UK and other allies of Ukraine would not be “distracted” from support for Kyiv by elections and other events which the Russian president might hope would mean a waning of the West’s focus on the conflict.

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In an interview with the Evening Standard, Ms Ghani said: “We have a huge amount of acceptance among British voters why Ukraine is so important to us and this is because we are absolutely steadfast in believing in the importance of sovereignty, in believing in the importance of liberal democracies, especially when they are dealing with an individual like Putin, who is a totalitarian imperialist who will never stop at defining his borders, he will just encroach for as long as he able to do so.”

Ms Ghani also praised the “courage” of mothers, wives and girlfriends of Russian soldiers killed or deployed in Ukraine who take part in protests.

Russia seizes another village in ongoing offensive

Firefighters work at the site of a Russian missile strike in Odesa 

Russia has claimed victory over a village in eastern Ukraine after bitter fighting amid Moscow’s renewed offensive.

The village of Berdychi in the Donetsk region of Ukraine reported earlier that it had repelled 39 Russian attacks in one day.

But today Russia’s defence ministry said they had successfully broken through the Ukrainian defences.

Recently Russia has focused its bombardment in other eastern areas like Chasiv Yar and Bakhmut.

The victory in Berdychi is the latest in a series of Russian gains in Ukraine’s east in recent weeks.

It comes after The US State Department last night confirmed that Russia is using chloropicrin, a chemical deployed in the First World War.

Use of the agent on the battlefield is banned under the Chemical Weapons Convention, which Russia has signed and ratified.

The State Department said that the use of the gas was not an “isolated” incident.

The announcement followed a Telegraph investigation which revealed the use of chemical weapons earlier this year.

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Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron reaffirmed he did not rule out sending troops to Ukraine, saying the issue would “legitimately” arise if Russia broke through Ukrainian front lines and Kyiv made such a request.

Mr Macron told the Economist that he is “not ruling anything out” because Europe is “facing someone who is not ruling anything out” when asked if he stood by comments earlier this year not excluding the sending of Western troops.

Some analysts believe that Russia could be on the verge of launching a major new offensive in Ukraine.