Artillery systems with minimal protection such as Grad rocket launchers or BM-27 don’t need to be attacked with anti-armour missiles but can be destroyed with heavy machine guns.

Zelensky: There are ‘tank traffic jams’

Even so, in an interview with The Economist, President Volodymyr Zelensky said his priority was for extra fighter jets, tanks and armoured vehicles.

“We don’t have as many as we need. We have taken a lot from the Russians. They are running. They are afraid of our soldiers and they are running.

“The Russians have thousands of military vehicles, and they are coming and coming and coming. If we can joke in this situation, I will. There are some cities, where there are so many tanks, they can’t go away. They have tank traffic jams.

“The Russians have thousands of military vehicles. It’s not that Ukraine is running out of tanks, but we have fewer and fewer, because no one is selling us tanks and armoured vehicles.

“This is a big problem for us. We have not received planes, armoured vehicles and tanks. We have already given a list of the military hardware we are looking for. We know what we want, where it is and how many we need.

“Soviet hardware is available. That’s fine. It’s all the same to us.”