The optimism that accompanied Ukraine’s initial successes against Russian troops waned as Moscow adjusted its tactics, regained its pace, and reaffirmed its overwhelming firepower against Ukrainian forces.
Western weapons systems arrive, but too slowly and in insufficient quantities to deter gradual Russian gains in the eastern Donbass region, with Kyiv warning that it is running out of ammunition and now relying almost entirely on its weapons to confront Russian forces. West.
“This is an artillery war now,” Vadim Skibitsky, the deputy chief of Ukraine’s military intelligence service, told the Guardian, acknowledging that Ukrainian forces were losing ground “in terms of artillery.” “Now it all depends on what the West gives us,” Skimicki said. “Ukraine has an artillery of up to 10 to 15 Russian artillery pieces. “Our western partners have given us about 10% of what they have.”
Ukraine uses 5,000 to 6,000 artillery shells a day, according to Skimitsky. “We have almost exhausted all the ammunition [του
πυροβολικού] “We are still using standard 155-caliber NATO missiles,” he said. “Europe is also delivering lower caliber shells, but as Europe is under pressure, the quantity is getting smaller,” he added.
Skimitsky also stressed the need for the West to supply Ukraine with long-range missile systems in order to strike at Russian forces from a distance. He estimates that the conflict will remain mainly an artillery war in the near future and the number of missile attacks, which can be launched by Russia and have hit civilians, will remain at the current pace.
During the first month of the war, Russia repeatedly fired rockets at Ukraine, but its use has declined in the past two months. Recent figures released by the head of Ukraine’s armed forces suggest that Russia is firing between 10 and 14 a day. Rockets are expensive to build. Each rocket can cost anywhere from a few hundred thousand dollars to several million.
“We have noticed that Russia carries out far fewer missile attacks and has used H-22 missiles, which are old Soviet missiles of the 1970s,” Skimitsky said. “This shows that Russia has exhausted its available missiles.” Skimitsky said Russia was unable to produce missiles quickly because of sanctions and that it had used about 60 percent of its supplies.
