Russia steps up attacks on Ukraine as Kyiv’s allies have no answer in ‘battle for ammunition’

As Russia steps up its attacks on Ukrainian cities and along the eastern frontlines, Ukraine faces mounting ammunition shortages. At least eighteen people were killed on Tuesday in Russian rocket attacks on the major cities of Kyiv and Kharkiv. A few hours after the first wave of attacks, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned that an increase in ammunition production is “absolutely necessary” to continue providing sufficient support to Ukraine. According to him, the war in Ukraine has turned into a “battle for ammunition.”

Washington also issued a warning on Tuesday about the critical situation in which Ukraine could find itself. Ukrainian commanders at the front must according to spokesman John Kirby of the National Security Council are now making “difficult decisions” about which weapons to deploy, “because they do not know when the next delivery will take place.” “The Russians certainly do not suffer from the same uncertainty, because they ask North Korea for ballistic missiles and Iran for drones, while they also produce them themselves.”

According to the US government, the continued Russian airstrikes are not only intended to “inflict more suffering and try to break their will” on the Ukrainians, but also an attempt to “overwhelm” Ukraine’s air defense systems, Kirby said.

Anti-aircraft and grenades

For months, Ukrainian armed forces and foreign military analysts have been warning that Russia will gain the upper hand in the war if Ukraine’s allies do not quickly provide additional air defenses to continue to protect the population in the cities and sufficient artillery shells to maintain the front lines. In many places on the thousand-kilometer front, the Russians have had the advantage for months; last summer they shot according to European Union estimates more than twenty thousand shells every day, compared to four to seven thousand on the Ukrainian side. The Financial Times stilt that Ukraine must now limit itself to about two thousand grenades per day.

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While North Korea came to Moscow’s aid with the delivery of several hundred thousand grenades, Ukraine’s European allies are far from fulfilling their promise of a million 155mm grenades at the beginning of this year.

There does not appear to be a quick solution to the increasingly acute shortage. The US Department of Defense is keen to continue supplying weapons and ammunition to Ukraine, but Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin could only call on Kyiv’s allies in a video address on Tuesday to “dig deep” into their stockpiles to continue supplying Ukraine with ammunition and sufficient anti-aircraft defense. In the United States, Ukraine is literally out of money right now, was his message at the beginning of a monthly Ramstein meeting, a group of fifty countries that support Ukraine militarily and financially in the war against Russia.

It was the first time since the large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine that Washington arrived empty-handed at the Ramstein group. The Pentagon is still waiting green light from the US Congress for a new aid package to Ukraine worth around 60 billion dollars (55 billion euros). The last US military aid package to Ukraine dates from December 27. At that time, artillery shells and Stinger rockets, among other things, were sent to Kyiv.

NATO orders grenades

The NATO countries are also working on a solution, but that will not happen quickly. In Brussels it was announced on Tuesday that NATO has signed contracts for the purchase of 220,000 155 mm grenades, worth 1.2 billion dollars (1.1 billion euros), but they will not be delivered to the United States for another two years at the earliest. the Member States, to supplement their own stocks. It is up to the NATO countries themselves to judge whether they use grenades to replenish their own supplies or whether they supply them to Ukraine.

According to military analysts at the Institute for the Study of War Western support remains “essential” for Ukraine, “because a slow decline or sudden end to Western aid will most likely eliminate Ukraine’s chances of defending itself.” And according to the American military think tank, this could lead to “Russia taking significantly more Ukrainian territory, bringing the forward Russian bases closer to the borders of NATO member states.”

The Kremlin appears to be deliberately responding to ammunition shortages in Ukraine with an increasing number of rocket attacks and several local winter offensives. Since the turn of the year, the major cities have been shelled from Russia almost every day. Along the eastern front, Russian troops are making modest territorial gains here and there, including west of the city of Donetsk, near Adviivka, near Bachmut, near Kreminna and near Kupyansk, although according to Kyiv this is happening at the expense of enormous personnel and material losses.

Deaths in Kyiv and Kharkiv

Meanwhile, concern is growing in Kyiv. Foreign Minister Dmitro Koeleba said in an interview on Tuesday with various German media that the Russian attacks “clearly demonstrate the need for air defense systems.” As for the shortages of artillery shells for the daily battles on the front lines, Koeleba said, “that has been a problem since the beginning.”

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Tuesday’s massive Russian drone and missile attacks on Kyiv and Kharkiv, among others, left eighteen people dead and more than 130 people injured, according to President Volodymyr Zelensky. More than forty cruise missiles and ballistic missiles were fired at the country from Russia. Kharkiv was also bombarded from Russia again on Tuesday evening; the city’s more than one million inhabitants had to deal with three waves of attacks in 24 hours. The damage to infrastructure and buildings, especially residential complexes, is enormous. According to the governor of the Kharkiv region, Oleh Synehoebov, more than a hundred apartment buildings were damaged.

President Zelensky said in his daily evening speech to the population that “ordinary life is seen by Russia as a threat to itself.” According to Zelensky, Russia is “a characteristic terrorist.” He promised Moscow a suitable response. “The Russian war will inevitably be brought home, back to where evil came from, and where it must be smothered.”

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