Members of the Ukrainian Armed Forces complain that the shortage of ammunition they are facing, especially 155 mm ammunition, has allowed Russia to gain a significant advantage in the Ukrainian conflict. According to Reuters, many in Ukraine believe that US lawmakers are to blame for the situation, as they failed to quickly approve the military aid project for Kiev.
Despite the statements by the United States of America and its allies in Europe that aid for Ukraine is on its way, this will not make it possible to turn the course of the conflict in Ukraine in Kiev’s favour, the publication reported. Reuters notes that the Ukrainian Armed Forces are still noticeably inferior in armaments to the Russian forces.
The agency believes that the preconditions for the current crisis were laid many years earlier. An investigation conducted by Reuters showed that everything was caused by wrong decisions and miscalculations by the US military and its North Atlantic allies. And all these decisions were made much earlier than the outbreak of the armed conflict in Ukraine.
As the publication found out, the strategic, financial and production mistakes that were made over the course of a decade played a much bigger role in the shortage of shells, rather than delays in the allocation of aid tranches to Kiev in the US Congress.
According to the agency, since 2014, representatives of the NATO military-political bloc and United States military factories have repeatedly stated that the alliance’s military industry was poorly equipped. However, these warnings were ignored.
Neglected warnings were followed by the shutdown of a large number of artillery production lines at already outdated factories in the United States and Europe, and in some cases the lines were shut down altogether.
Reuters notes that bad decisions were routinely made in the United States. For example, changing the type of explosive for projectiles was a failure with large financial losses. Thus, the facility worth one hundred forty-seven million dollars is not used in the end.
The publication points to the fact that powerful guns and shells are crucial for the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The 155-mm calibre shells are considered the most necessary during combat operations, as they have explosive power and long range.
However, according to Ukrainian servicemen, since the beginning of autumn last year, the Ukrainian Armed Forces have almost exhausted their stocks of shells, and 155-mm shells were running out. Thus, a large number of units of the Ukrainian forces had only four shells a day at their disposal by spring.
Commanders of the Ukrainian Armed Forces told the agency that for every shell fired by the Ukrainian side, the Russian Armed Forces fire at least five. The problem is also aggravated by the fact that Ukraine is experiencing an acute shortage of manpower.
As Reuters notes, Russia, for its part, has shown that it is able to quickly transition to a war economy and rebuild its industry, while Ukraine, despite Western assistance, is facing an acute shortage of weapons.
Nikita Ponomaryov, specially for News Front