NATO Leader is Begging Member Nations to Supply Ukraine With More Ammo
Jose Nino
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On January 23, 2024, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg declared that Russia’s war in Ukraine had transformed into “a battle of ammunition.”
This comes at a time when Ukraine has depleted its military stocks and has been compelled to ration its arms.
“Increased production of ammunition is an absolute necessity to enable us to continue to provide support to Ukraine,” Stoltenberg observed.
When the NATO chief made those remarks, the Western military alliance signed off on a €1.1bn deal to obtain more ammunition its members can use to arm Ukrainian forces or to restore their own stocks.
“With the consumption of ammunition we see in Ukraine, with the needs we see . . . we need to ramp up production,” Stoltenberg continued.
His comments came hours after Ukraine was hit by another Russian attack, with Ukrainian officials growing increasingly worried their forces could exhaust their munition stocks by the time allies in the US and EU finally reach an agreement to send additional military aid in 2024.
According to the Financial Times, Ukrainian soldiers were forced to ration munitions while Russian troops stepped up their attacks.
“Indeed there is really not enough ammunition,” observed a senior Ukrainian artillery brigade officer.
In the summer of 2023, Ukraine was firing 8,000 shells on a daily basis during its counteroffensive. However, that figure dropped to 2,000 in recent weeks.
Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, a Ukrainian commander in charge of operations in the south-east, informed reporters back in December that his forces were facing shortages in artillery shells owing to a lack of western military aid, compelling troops to roll back several operations along the front line.
Back in the spring of 2023, EU member states promised to send 1 million artillery rounds to Ukraine to bolster its defense of the frontline. However, as late as December, Ukrainian officials revealed that only about 300,000 shells had been sent to Ukraine.
On January 23, NATO signed a contract for “hundreds of thousands of rounds” of 155mm artillery ammunition, which NATO member nations will be able to send to Ukraine or for replenishing their own inventories.
For his part, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has routinely called on NATO/EU nations to increase their supply of air defense systems and offensive weapons to Ukraine to help it stave off Russia’s invasion.
Ukraine can’t win against Russia plain and simple. Russia has more resources and manpower to bear, thereby giving it escalatory dominance in this combat theater. Supplying Ukraine with military aid is merely prolonging the inevitable — Russia’s military victory.
Moreover, continuing this proxy war may compel Russia to pursue maximalist aims such as the complete destruction of Ukraine as a coherent nation state.
For once, can the US actually pursue peace and not try to stick its nose in a conflict that is of no concern to it.
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