We got two Ukraine-related docs

POLITICO's National Security Daily has procured two telling documents on the Ukraine war: a list of Ukraine’s latest weapons requests circulating in Washington, D.C., and a slide deck used at today’s extraordinary meeting of 30 nations to curb Russia’s military rearmament.

First off, the “priority items” list, obtained Thursday night. Eight months into the war, Ukraine is asking for:

— 300 Main battle tanks
— 1,000 BMP armored personnel carriers
— 30 Multiple Launch Rocket System
— 250 155mm artillery systems
— 500 anti-tank guided missiles
— 1,000 man-portable air-defense systems
— 72 short-range air defense systems
— 20 AN/TPQ-36, AN/TPQ-37 Firefinder radar
— 40 AN/TPQ-48, AN/TPQ-49 light counterfire radar

Ukrainian officials apparently circulated this list among their American counterparts very recently. That said, there are tons of lists flying around town, though we’re reliably told this one is the most current. Neither the National Security Council, State Department nor Pentagon chose to comment.

Reuters reported that the next weapons package for Ukraine, this one valued at around $725 million, will include munitions and vehicles but not air defenses. The U.S. seems to be leaving the air-defense transfers to European nations while Washington focuses on sending artillery.

“We announced that we are sending missiles for an air-defense system that has been provided by an ally, and that was to signal to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin that the only thing he achieves by doing these attacks on civilian infrastructure and on completely innocent citizens is that we are stepping up our efforts to help Ukraine,” said Kajsa Ollongren, the defense minister for the Netherlands.

Meanwhile, U.S. Treasury, Commerce and intelligence officials are discussing with allies how to deprive Russia’s military of crucial weapons and components. NatSec Daily couldn't link to or publish the slides from the meeting, but can supply details about what they said.

The slide deck, titled “Sanctions and Export Control Eroding Moscow’s War Effort,” notes that Russia has lost “over 6,000 pieces of equipment” since the start of the war. Furthermore, Russia’s forces are “expending munitions at an unsustainable rate,” the deck says, though it doesn’t detail how the U.S. knows that.

The presentation also lauds the impact of export controls on Russia’s military, namely that Moscow is relying on “contraband chips” and “lower-quality imports” from countries like China. The Kremlin is now suffering a “critical shortage of bearings undermining production of tanks, aircraft, submarines, and other military systems” while the Russian defense industry is “short of supplies and components … for marine diesel engines, helicopter and aircraft engine parts, tank fire control systems.”

Allied nations should remain vigilant, says the U.S.-produced slide deck, since Russian intelligence services have been “tasked to illicitly acquire Western technology and parts.”

A version of this story previously appeared in National Security Daily, POLITICO's newsletter giving the inside scoop on defense, national security and foreign policy.