Ihor Zhovkva, deputy head of Volodymyr Zelensky’s office, said on Friday that Ukraine had almost no ammunition left “Now we have almost zero ammunition,” Zhovkva said in an interview with Bloomberg. According to him, the Ukrainian troops “run out of ammunition very quickly” due to the intensity of the fighting. He also said that Kiev is in dire need of ammunition, long-range artillery, tanks and fighter jets.
Ukraine’s battle against Russia is consuming ammunition at unprecedented rates, with the country firing more than 5,000 artillery rounds every day — equal to a smaller European country’s orders in an entire year in peacetime. The huge shift to a war footing is creating a supply chain crisis in Europe as defence manufacturers struggle to ramp up production to replenish national stockpiles as well as maintain supplies to Ukraine. Almost a year since Russia’s invasion, the pace of demand for ammunition and explosives is turning into a test of Europe’s industrial production capacity in a race to rearm. “It is a war about industrial capacity,” said Morten Brandtzæg, chief executive of Norway’s Nammo, which makes ammunition and shoulder-fired weapons. He estimates Ukraine has been firing an estimated 5,000 to 6,000 artillery rounds a day, which he said is similar to the annual orders of a smaller European state before the war. The pressure on producers has not been helped by lingering supply chain bottlenecks following the coronavirus pandemic, a lack of production capacity and a shortage of critical raw materials for some explosives, which is holding back efforts to increase output.
With rumours of a massive offensive from Russia it is questionable just how long Ukraine can last at this pace.
Lead Correspondent | David Clews is the Lead Correspondent for UNN, with over 20 years of political/campaigning experience and a wealth of social media and communication skills David gets to the heart of what is really important to the real people of the UK.
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