With drones raining down on Ukrainian cities, US officials fear Kyiv is running out of weapons to defend itself from Russian air attacks.

Equipping its warplanes with the western missiles is seen as a creative solution to that problem, Politico reported.

The latest versions of the missile have a range of almost 160km, which could help counter Russian jets armed with sophisticated weapons that out-range anything in Ukraine’s arsenal. Engineers have already equipped Ukrainian jets with AGM-Harm air-to-surface missiles.

Donated by the US, the missiles home in on enemy radar signals and played a key role in Ukraine’s lightning counter offensives last summer, en-
abling its air force to devastate Russia’s air defences.

Ukraine’s defence minister yesterday warned the EU that its plan to buy one million artillery shells will not be enough to help Kyiv’s fight against the Russian invasion.

At a meeting in Stockholm, Oleksiy Reznikov told his EU counterparts that Ukraine’s armed forces need at least 100,000 155mm rounds each month to ease critical battlefield shortages.

European defence ministers agreed a plan to centralise the bloc’s defence spending to purchase one million shells by the end of the year, at a cost of €4bn.

However, Mr Reznikov said the plan would not meet Kyiv’s needs.

“We need one million rounds and approximately that would cost €4bn,” he said. “We need more.”

Josep Borrell, the EU’s top foreign diplomat, said Brussels would commit a further €1bn.

“The next weeks and months, but mainly weeks – we are talking about weeks, will be critical because the military situation on the ground is very difficult,” he said.

Meanwhile, the head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group claimed his forces had taken full control of the eastern part of the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut as one of the bloodiest battles of the year-long war ground on amid the ruins.

If the claim is true, it would mean Russian forces control nearly half the city in their costly push to secure their first big victory in several months.

Ukrainian defenders re- mained defiant, however. Last week they appeared to be preparing for a tactical retreat from Bakhmut, but military and political leaders are now speaking of hanging on to positions and inflicting as many casualties as possible on the Russian assault force.

The general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said yesterday: “The enemy, despite significant losses, continues to storm the town of Bakhmut.”

Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin said his fighters, who have been spearheading the Russian campaign to seize Bakhmut, had now captured the city’s east.

“Everything east of the Bakhmutka River is completely under the control of Wagner,” Prigozhin said on Telegram.

The river bisects Bakhmut city, which sits on the edge of a swathe of the Donetsk region that is already largely under Russian occupation. The city centre is on the west side of the river.

Ukrainian military statements said earlier there may be “conditions” in Bakhmut for a Ukrainian offensive.

“The main task of our troops in Bakhmut is to grind the enemy’s fighting capability, to bleed their combat potential,” said Serhiy Cherevatyi, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s eastern military command

Russia, which claims to have annexed nearly 20pc of Ukraine’s territory, has made progress in recent weeks around Bakhmut, but its winter offensive has yielded no significant gains in assaults further north and south.

It says that taking Bakhmut would be a step towards seizing the industrial Donbas region, made up of Donetsk and Luhansk provinces. Western analysts say Bakhmut has little strategic value.

But Kyiv says the losses suffered by Russia there could determine the course of the war, with decisive battles expected when the weather is better and Ukraine receives more military aid.

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