Ukrainian servicemen on the 24th anniversary of the Independence Day | ANATOLII STEPANOV/AFP/Getty What the Ukrainian military really needs

In the 18th century brick colonial that serves as the Ukrainian Embassy, and where George Washington signed the deed to the nation’s capital, Kostiantyn Liesnik proudly showed off his brand-new camouflage fatigues, with its “lizard” pattern.

The new uniform might seem inconsequential to outsiders, the head of the Ukrainian military’s Logistics and Procurement Reform Working Group recently told a small group of reporters in broken English. But it is “important for Ukraine army to have their own face because realistically, we still have Soviet uniform and they stay in the brain of our officers.”

As Washington continues to wring its hands over whether to provide advanced weapons to Ukraine in its fight against separatists backed by Russia — including anti-tank missiles — much of the discussion has focused on fears of stoking a more direct and dangerous confrontation with Moscow.

But another major quandary is that no one can really answer how much equipment is really needed; whether it could be put to good use; and even if the equipment would end up in the hands of the intended recipients.

The Ukrainian military, U.S. officials, say is seeded with high-level Russian sympathizers. It is also rife with corruption.

Many of the units fighting on behalf of the Ukraine government are volunteer forces not fully integrated into the Ukrainian military. And they are often better equipped than many soldiers in regular military, who wear a combination of U.S., British, and German uniforms often bought online. When the soldiers go off to fight they are issued merely one pair of socks, a pair of underwear, a Kalashnikov assault rifle and some ammunition, say those who have seen the war up close.

“If you are a young patriotic man or woman in Ukraine and you want to fight for your country, what do you do instead? You join a private battalion and an oligarch usually funds these private battalions … you get the latest assault rifle, the latest body armor, the latest Ray-Ban shades, the latest boots and you are taken care of,” said Luke Coffey of the Heritage Foundation, who traveled to war-torn country earlier this year.

There remains a severe lack of coordination among fighting units: There are an estimated 50 volunteer battalions comprising over 10,000 volunteer fighters and the Ukrainian government has been slow to integrate them into he official command structure.

“They still have their own budgets, they still do their own training completely independent of the government,” said Nolan Peterson, a former special operations pilot and a veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan who embedded with a volunteer unit in Ukraine, They still have their own command structures, they still pretty much operate autonomously from Kiev,” he said via Skype.

The Ukrainian military, which U.S. officials also say is seeded with high-level Russian sympathizers, is also rife with corruption.

“When I was in Ukraine back in April, I was pretty much told it takes a bribe from the upper-echelon of the military down to the supply sergeant to get a pair of boots and there are Ukrainian soldiers that are going to the front lines wearing tennis shoes instead,” said Coffey.

Since the pro-Russian unrest that boiled over last year following the Russian invasion of Crimea peninsula, the U.S. has given a variety of non-lethal equipment to Ukraine. An estimated $244 million worth of Humvees, lightweight counter mortar and artillery radars, night vision and protective gear, shelters, diesel generators, water tanks and medical supplies are being shipped over.

But leading members of Congress — and the Ukrainians themselves — have been clamoring for more advanced weapons, including Javelin anti-tank missiles that could pierce Russian armored vehicles. Sen. John McCain, the Republican chairman of the Armed Services Committee, has said it is “shameful” that the Obama administration has not done more.

Secretary of Defense Ash Carter has said he, too, is inclined to support a more aggressive effort to arm the Ukrainians.

Yet convincing Washington — or other Western allies — that it is addressing the dysfunction and starting to look and operate like a modern military is a major, often under-appreciated challenge for the Ukrainian government.

“We are trying to figure out how to plug into that very complex situation and work with the right people and get the right results — and it is not easy,” said a senior Pentagon official with direct purview over the issue.

The lack of what he described as an effective acquisition and logistics system on the Ukrainian side “has real ramifications for what weapon systems one might provide them.”

“If they have better systems in place to maintain accountability and sustain those systems, then a donor can provide those systems with more confidence,” he added.

The official, who was not authorized to speak publicly, also expressed concern about Russian “plants or sympathizers” within the Ukrainian military hierarchy.

“It has been incredibly challenging because you have the political leadership that is very much committed to Westernization,” he explained. But there are “some military leaders who are sort of old guard.”

A soldier has the right to have one pair of boots for six months.

Liesnik and his comrades tasked with convincing Washington to do more insist that they are making progress in improving the military’s institutions — starting with simple things like ensuring soldiers have what they need and tracking items through an electronic distribution system much like the U.S. military has.

For example, cabinet ministers used to have to sign off on orders for soldiers’ gear, according to Viktor Plakhuta, the program manager for logistics and procurement reform, said at the embassy event. But a new law has changed that.

“It was a very long process in order to, for example, a soldier has the right to have one pair of boots for six months. If you want introduce, for example, two pairs of boots, you have to go through whole long process through cabinet of ministers approval,” he said. “This is half a year, a very long process.”

Now, “we can supply what we want, what we think a soldier need,” he said.

Peterson said that acquiring such weapons as Javelin would be a major symbolic victory for the Ukrainian military. But what it really needs to confront the Russians is far more basic than that.

“You’ve got trenches coexisting with drones,” he said. “It is this strange dual nature of warfare you might have seen 100 years ago. It’s just bizarre.”

Bryan Bender contributed to this report.