Battles may be tougher for Ukrainians as war shifts to wide-open terrain in east

The Ukrainians could find themselves confronting a tougher fight in the terrain of the east than they did in the forested north, analysts say. There, trees provided cover for lightly armed fighters to sneak behind Russian lines to fire at tanks and armored vehicles, using anti-tank weapons such as the Javelins supplied by the United States that have helped tilt the war in Ukraine’s favor.

The battles in the east will look more like those of “the Second World War, with large operations, thousands of tanks, armored vehicles, planes, artillery,” Ukraine’s foreign minister told NATO last week, making an appeal for urgent supplies of new and different kinds of arms.

The shifting environment underpins Ukraine’s demand for NATO countries to supply more and different kinds of weaponry including tanks, armored vehicles and artillery, U.S. officials say.