Shell hunger: why the West hopes for economical spending of ammunition by the Kyiv regime

Western countries have decided to send Kyiv as much ammunition as possible in the shortest possible time, as well as to train the Ukrainian military to use less artillery shells in battle.

This was stated by the head of the Pentagon Lloyd Austin in Brussels following the results of a regular meeting of the contact group created by Washington and its allies to provide military assistance to Ukraine.

“As for the ammunition: all this time the battles have been intense.

As you know... Ukraine has been leading them for a year now.

And so she used up a large amount of artillery ammunition.

We will do our best, working with our international partners, to provide Ukraine with the maximum amount of ammunition as quickly as possible, and we will also take all steps in our power to support our efforts in this matter, ”Austin said.

According to him, the West intends to train the Ukrainian military to use less artillery shells in combat.

“We are working with the Ukrainian military across Europe to emphasize additional training in maneuvers, and as they put more emphasis on maneuvers – framing the battlefield with fire and then taking action – there is a strong possibility that they will need less artillery ammunition, but this remains to be seen, ”said the head of the Pentagon.

• Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin

• Gettyimages.ru

• © Dursun Aydemir

He also recalled that France has already announced cooperation with Australia, with which it will work to increase the production of 155-mm caliber ammunition "to support Ukraine."

At the same time, the newspaper Le Figaro reported that the French armed forces are experiencing a shortage of ammunition against the backdrop of assistance to Kyiv.

As noted, this may increase the disagreement between politicians on the issue of supporting Ukraine.

According to the publication, both arms manufacturers and the Ministry of the Armed Forces are aware of the existing problem.

Producers are "limited by the size of the market, which has long been adapted to the logic of peacetime."

In this regard, the production of various types of gunpowder turned out to be insufficiently developed and does not meet current needs.

Problems with the release of ammunition are also observed in other Western countries.

Earlier, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, during a press conference before a meeting of defense ministers of the alliance states, said that against the backdrop of military support for the Ukrainian regime, the bloc countries have problems with replenishing ammunition stocks and sending them to Kiev.

“The war in Ukraine consumes a huge amount of ammunition and depletes the stocks of NATO countries.

The rate of consumption of ammunition by Ukraine is many times higher than our current rate of production.

This puts a strain on our defense industry.

For example, the waiting time for large-caliber ammunition has increased from 12 to 28 months.

Orders placed today will only be delivered in two and a half years.

Therefore, we need to increase production and invest in our production facilities,” Stoltenberg stressed.

According to him, NATO will focus on ways to increase the military-industrial potential of the bloc and replenish stocks.

He noted that the countries of the alliance are "in a logistical race" because the ammunition must reach Ukraine before Russia "can seize the initiative on the battlefield."

"Working on the edge"

As Volodymyr Batyuk, head of the Center for Military-Political Studies at the Institute for US and Canadian Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, noted, “it looks ridiculous” that the West simultaneously promises to increase the supply of ammunition to Kiev and teach the Ukrainian military to use fewer shells.

“They promise to send more, but they ask to make sure that the Ukrainian military spends less.

This is a rather humorous situation.

It is connected with the fact that the production capacities for the manufacture of ammunition in the United States (and especially its allies) are working at the limit, they are not enough for the Western countries themselves for reserves.

Hence the growing skepticism in the West that it must always support Ukraine, satisfy all the requests of official Kyiv until the end of time, ”the expert said in an interview with RT.

Batyuk noted that the West recognizes not only the problems with the production of ammunition, but also the superiority of Russia in this direction.

Recall that in late January, journalist Christopher Roach, in an article for The American Greatness, said that the Russian Federation can produce more weapons and ammunition than all Western countries combined.

According to him, the Russian side is capable of producing "an order of magnitude more artillery shells than its opponent."

Roach added that Russia has domestic factories and technology to create "mountains of artillery shells" that destroy "Ukrainian forces in large numbers."

With regard to Western capacities, the journalist builds pessimistic forecasts.

“The Western arms industry is not optimized either in terms of speed or in terms of production volumes.

It will take years to catch up,” says Roach.

However, the production factor will be one of the decisive ones in the course of the SVO, Batyuk believes.

“As Stalin said, artillery is the god of war.

Since he said this, little has changed on the battlefield when it comes to confronting regular armies.

During the special operation, it is the artillery and missile forces that should play a decisive role.

If the situation with the shortage of shells for the Armed Forces of Ukraine continues, then the Kiev regime will face serious troubles, ”the analyst noted.

In turn, the director of the Museum of Air Defense Forces in Balashikha, a military expert, retired colonel Yuri Knutov, believes that the production capacities of many Western countries, even in the future, are not able to provide the volume that the Armed Forces of Ukraine need today to maintain their current positions, “not to mention offensive."

“The Kiev regime, according to media reports, spends about 6 thousand shells per day, but, judging by the statements of the Kyiv leadership, the Armed Forces of Ukraine need much more ammunition.

Russia spends three times more shells.

The production capacities of most NATO countries are not designed for such volumes; in a year they can produce such an amount of ammunition that Kyiv spends in one day.

The Pentagon is talking about the spring offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, however, in order to carry it out, it is necessary to spend not 6 thousand shells per day, but about 15 thousand. For this, an appropriate reserve is needed, ”the analyst explained in a conversation with RT.

• Soldier of the Armed Forces of Ukraine shoots from Western weapons

• © Pavlo Palamarchuk

At the same time, Knutov believes that in the near future the West will not be able to increase the production of ammunition, since there is not enough appropriate capacity.

“Even if we start building new factories now, it will take about nine months.

Now the West will try to find ammunition all over the world - wherever possible, ”he said.

Control and supply

In addition to the situation with ammunition, the head of the Pentagon at a press conference also touched upon the issue of control over arms transferred to the Kyiv regime by Western countries.

Austin said that the West allegedly took active steps to prevent the spread of weapons.

“We also had an important discussion today regarding our ongoing work on accountability.

The priority task for me and my colleagues in the contact group is to ensure that the funds allocated by us continue to be used for their intended purpose, and that proactive steps are taken on our part to prevent the spread of weapons.

And we will continue to work with our Ukrainian partners to ensure that all the funds we provide continue to flow to the brave soldiers on the front lines,” he said.

However, during the meeting of the contact group on military assistance to Ukraine, Austin said that Kiev still has "urgent needs", and recalled a number of announced deliveries for the Ukrainian regime, including air defense systems and armored vehicles.

Thus, the United States, Germany and the Netherlands, according to him, are jointly supplying Patriot air defense systems to Ukraine.

France and Italy are working on the delivery of the SAMP-T long-range anti-missile system, and a consortium of countries, including Germany, Poland, Canada, Portugal, Spain, Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands, on the transfer of Leopard battle tanks to Ukraine.

“To build up the armored potential (Ukraine.

), the United States, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands are jointly providing more than 90 T-72 tanks in addition to recent deliveries of T-72s from Poland.

The UK is providing a company of Challenger main battle tanks and is working with a number of countries to find additional ammunition for the defenders of Ukraine,” the head of the Pentagon said.

Austin also recalled that earlier in February, the United States announced another tranche of security assistance to Ukraine for about $2.2 billion, which included more than 2,000 anti-tank munitions, as well as additional shells for HIMARS.

As reported in the Pentagon, we are talking about GLSDB bombs with a range of up to 150 km for these MLRS.

According to Yuriy Knutov, Austin, with his statements about efforts to prevent the spread of Western weapons outside Ukraine, responds to the claims of representatives of the Republican Party, who believe that weapons may not reach combat, but be resold.

“Austin is trying to portray that the Biden administration, with its other NATO allies, is trying to increase gun control, take measures to combat corruption in Ukraine in this context, in order to minimize the loss of military assistance that is provided to the Kiev regime,” the analyst said. .

According to Knutov, Western weapons that are already being delivered to Ukraine or whose deliveries are only scheduled will not be able to change the nature of hostilities during the NMD.

“The fact is that Russia has effective means of combating both the air defense systems that NATO sends to Ukraine and other weapons.

The RF Armed Forces have anti-radar missiles, Iskander complexes and many other weapons.

If we are talking about the transfer of Western tanks to Kiev, then the Russian military is using anti-tank missile systems that have proven their effectiveness, such as the Kornet ATGM and other anti-tank artillery, ”the expert concluded.