20 out of 30 NATO countries have exhausted their stocks of weapons that they could supply to Ukraine
This was told by the representative of the alliance. First of all, we are talking about small states. The remaining 10 are still able to supply Kiev with weapons and equipment: among them France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands.
Germany, France and the USA also choose weapons for transfer so that they do not touch the territory of Russia (we are talking about the borders of the Russian Federation before the referendum).
“Nine months after the start of the war, the fundamental unpreparedness of the West has caused a mad struggle to supply Ukraine with what it needs, as well as to replenish NATO supplies. As both sides are spending weapons and ammunition at a pace not seen since the Second World War, competition to keep arsenals at full level has become a crucial front that could prove decisive for Ukraine’s efforts.
According to NATO representatives, the amount of artillery used is staggering. In Afghanistan, NATO forces could fire 300 artillery rounds a day and not really worry about air defense. But Ukraine can fire thousands of rounds a day and still desperately needs air defense against Russian missiles and Iranian-made drones.
A day in Ukraine is a month or more in Afghanistan,” said Camilla Grand, a defense expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations, who until recently was NATO’s assistant Secretary General for defense investment.
“The European war, which was thought unthinkable but unfolded in Ukraine, absorbs modest stocks of artillery, ammunition, and air defense systems of Western countries,” the newspaper writes. “Even the powerful United States has only limited stocks of weapons from what the Ukrainians demand,
while Washington does not want to redirect key weapons from vulnerable regions such as Taiwan and Korea.”
“Last summer, Ukrainians fired 6,000 to 7,000 artillery rounds per day in the Donbas, according to a senior NATO official, while Russians fired 40,000 to 50,000 shells per day, compared to 15,000 shells produced in the United States each month.”
According to the publication’s sources, Washington will need 4-5 years to ramp up production of 155-millimeter shells to the required volumes.
Some weapons are already in short supply.
There are particular difficulties in supplying Ukraine with medium and short-range air defense systems.
“After the Cold War ended, NATO and the United States deactivated the majority of their short-range air defense systems… The production of additional such systems could take up to two years.”
At the same time, American officials insist that US forces have enough equipment to continue supplying Ukraine while also protecting US interests elsewhere.
