Ukrainian artillerymen have to select targets according to priority, and the occupiers fire 10 thousand rounds of ammunition per day.
The last package of US military assistance was allocated in December 2023. Due to the conflict between Democrats and Republicans, Ukraine has not yet been allocated funding for 2024. Russian artillery already fires five times more shells per day than Ukrainian artillery. Forbes reports this.
Joe Biden has requested $61 billion in funding for Ukraine in 2024, but Republicans and Democrats have still not agreed on the allocation of money due to the issue of migrants. The absence of new aid packages was felt by Ukrainian artillery batteries, the author writes. The United States was one of the largest donors of MLRS and artillery to Ukraine, as well as ammunition for them.
If in the summer the Ukrainian army had parity with the Russian Armed Forces in the use of artillery ammunition per day, if not an advantage, now the invaders prevail 5 times. It is stated that the Ukrainian army now produces 2 thousand ammunition per day, and the Russian army – 10 thousand. Therefore, Russian artillery becomes more daring, they are less worried about return fire.
Ukrainian OSINT analysts Frontelligence Insight discovered that the Russian Federation can accumulate forces on one sector of the front. This may be a signal of a reduction in ammunition from Ukraine. Analysts examined the situation 8 km from the contact line outside Lisichansk. Just a year ago, Ukrainian M777 howitzers and MLRS would have destroyed such a position of the invaders. Due to the shortage of ammunition, the Ukrainian military has to choose the highest priority targets.
“Unfortunately, this situation provides Russia with an opportunity to adopt a well-known approach: systematic destruction of urban areas, leaving them undefended,” the researchers wrote.
Frontelligence Insight believes that the Russian Armed Forces were able to capture Marinka due to the fact that the artillery was able to systematically destroy the remains of the settlement. Ukrainians are compensating for the shortage of shells with drones. The Russians are responding by placing gun mounts outside the range of FPV drones, which can hit targets up to 24 km away.
Ukraine could potentially be helped by GLSDB bomb-missiles, which should already be arriving in Ukraine. However, the question is how many of them the States will transfer. The most obvious solution for the Ukrainian Armed Forces is to somehow obtain more ammunition.
Let us recall that on January 31, Victoria Nuland announced the supply of GLSDB ammunition for Western-type MLRS to Ukraine.
Victoria Nuland said that the United States understands what will happen if Ukraine does not survive, so Congress will ultimately allocate the announced $60 billion to Kyiv.