On December 21, the American "Washington Post" interviewed soldiers of the 148th Artillery Brigade of the Ukrainian Army, and then reported on the shortage of ammunition, which currently uses Western** 155mm howitzers, one of the soldiers said: "At present, the amount of ammunition obtained by the artillery units has decreased by 80-90%, only 10-20 rounds per day." But what can you do with 10 shells a day?This is only enough to barely cope with the attack of the Russian army, let alone take the initiative to attack the Russian army. ”
All Ukrainian soldiers interviewed by the newspaper unanimously stated that they did not see a similar shortage of ammunition in the Russian army, and one of the interviewed soldiers went on to emphasize that at the moment the artillery units have a very limited number of shells to strike at specific targets, and the front-line units are very "tired", which exacerbates the seriousness of the problem. "The Russian army has some kind of numerical superiority, and the situation is only getting worse, and the war cannot be won by motivation alone without action," he lamented. ”
Ukraine's ammunition consumption rate far exceeds the production capacity of supporters in the Western world, and while Western intelligence agencies have had some success in scouring the black market for new **, the serious depletion of ammunition stocks in NATO member countries poses a very serious challenge. Since the beginning of October, due to the outbreak of conflict in the Gaza Strip, the United States has transferred ammunition to Israel, many of which were supposed to be destined for Ukraine, so this will only exacerbate the aggravation of the situation, and the US side itself is facing a growing shortage of several ammunition due to the continuous assistance to Ukraine.
In contrast, the Russian side is much better, and there are many signs that the equipment of the Russian front-line troops has become better compared to the early days of the war. Not only did the country receive large quantities of supplies from North Korea and Iran, but it also dramatically expanded the output of Russia's defense industry, which until then operated at a fraction of the level of the Soviet Union.
As early as the end of 2022, Ukraine repeatedly highlighted the shortage of anti-aircraft missiles, and the very limited ground air defense equipment and production capacity assisted by NATO member states means that if this equipment is exhausted, it will limit the ability of air defense forces to strike Russian air targets. Earlier this month, interviews with soldiers of the Ukrainian Army's elite mechanized 47th Brigade confirmed claims that ammunition shortages are hampering the operations of Ukraine's ground forces, with soldiers of the brigade reporting that not only is the amount of ammunition only one-tenth of that of the summer**, but also that the quality of ammunition has also decreased significantly, with many of the ammunition from different countries and different batches being duds. The impasse in the US Senate over the approval of new aid funding for Ukraine is still uncertain whether or when it will be resolved, but even if funds are available, options for using this money to purchase ammunition remain limited due to the depletion of stockpiles over the past two years**. Autumn and Winter Check-in Challenge