NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Monday that Ukrainian forces are using significantly more ammunition than the alliance’s members can produce, putting a strain on Western stockpiles.
“The war in Ukraine is consuming an enormous amount of munitions, and depleting allied stockpiles,” Stoltenberg told reporters ahead of a NATO defense ministers meeting in Brussels.
“The current rate of Ukraine’s ammunition expenditure is many times higher than our current rate of production, and this puts our defense industries under strain,” he added.
Stoltenberg said that NATO needs to “ramp up production” and that the defense ministers meeting will focus on “ways to increase our defense industrial capacity and replenish stockpiles.”
The US has sent an enormous number of artillery shells to Ukraine since the Russian invasion. The US has provided Ukraine with over one million 155mm shells and is working to increase its production of ammunition by 500% over the next two years to meet Ukraine’s demand and also maintain Pentagon stockpiles.
But even with the US and NATO’s plans to increase production, it’s not clear if the policy of flooding Ukraine with weapons is sustainable. To offset the strain on NATO stockpiles and to make more money from the war, British and other Western arms makers want to start manufacturing weapons inside Ukraine. But a production line could take years to establish, and the factories could be targeted by Russia.
Stoltenberg said NATO is in a “race of logistics” to deliver equipment to Ukraine as Russia is making more gains in the Donbas. “Key capabilities like ammunition, fuel, and spare parts must reach Ukraine before Russia can seize the initiative on the battlefield,” he said.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov will join the NATO defense ministers in Brussels on Tuesday, where he will likely push for fighter jets. Stoltenberg said providing Ukraine with aircraft would be discussed at the meeting but that he preferred to focus on weapons Ukraine could use immediately as training on fighter jets would take time.
While there have been no pledges of Western jets to Ukraine, the UK said it will start training Ukrainians on how to fly NATO aircraft this spring. The discussion of jets comes after a series of escalations in Western military support for Ukraine, including the provision of heavy tanks and armored fighting vehicles.
Each new weapon brings NATO and Russia closer to a direct clash, something Stoltenberg has previously warned could happen. In December, Stoltenberg warned that a full-blown war with Russia was a “real possibility.”
Only people detached from the reality can believe in American victory in this war.
The only victory most Americans want if for Ukraine to be free of Russia and that’s not far from reality except for you and your team here of anti US.
Yes, please let Ukraine get back to that wonderful Jeffersonian democracy that they enjoyed pre-invasion. That’s what we Americans want.
No, Americans don’t want that. But the US has been assisting the Ukraine government for years to combat corruption. Ukrainians have been working for years to change the Russian culture of corruption they inherited. It has been slow progress but still moving in the right direction. Ukraine corruption is more lower levels in comparison with Russia where it mainly happens at the higher levels and stealing exponentially more from their people.
“But the US has been assisting the Ukraine government for years to combat corruption.”
I couldn’t read past that sentence.
Because you are anti US, I get it.
The US is not just an evil force, it does a lot of great things all over the world.
Have you considered moving to Russia, China, or any other country that is not US friendly?
If you are unhappy with the US, it’s never too late to change country code.
Yes Don, it is because I’m anti-US. It couldn’t be because I’ve seen what our benevolent actions have done all over the world since ww2. And especially since 9/11. And how about you move, Don? We need to get rid of you ass kissers that think their country can do no wrong and blindly follow along while we bomb and starve with impunity.
I am not so sure that most Americans want what their government is doing.
Most Americans are clueless.
America isn’t in this war. America has already won, Russia has lost half its tanks at a cost of no American casualties. When you see your opponent making a mistake, don’t stop him.
Yes, no American casualties. Never mind the hundreds of thousands that have died, we won because Russia lost half of its tanks. There are just too many Madeline Albrights still breathing.
If Vladimir Putin had asked me if he should invade Ukraine, I would have told him not to do it. The choice was his, now if you try to say “he had no choice” then I have to wonder why we have leaders at all as apparently they could be replaced by some kind of deterministic clockwork machine.
It was your “it was worth it” tone that I was replying to.
Putin did something incredibly stupid. He did not have to invade Ukraine. I am unhappy that he gave the US a cheap victory over Russia. But thw war was Putin’s choice.
A bad peace is better than a good war.
Putin’s follyjust proves that the law of blowback works agaisnt imperialist aggression in the Post WW II era. Blowback has beaten the US, France, Portugal, the USSR and now Russia. The imperialist leaders never understand the limits of their power in asymmetric warfare. They alwasy learn the hard way. I have watched these slow motion train wrecks for over 60 years since the French got their asses kicked in Algerian and the US won every battle with the VC only to lose a ten year long war.
Putin was in a bad situation a year ago. But a bad situation does not justify a war of aggression that Russia is losing. ,
The Victory in Ukraine will be a victory for the Ukrainian people over Russian imperialism.
Russia is using ammunition at 4 or 5 times the rate that Ukraine is using ammunition. China would be 10 times.
Russia by some reliable estimates is firing 10x what Ukraine fires. Furthermore, it has it to fire, and is making more at those rates.
The US used to brag about tens of thousands of sent ammunition rounds. Now that they say that more than a million have been sent, it is clear that tens of thousands is a very small percentage of what is needed.
If they run out of ammo that does not mean the killing will stop. The US has always been creative with their destruction. AQs long as nothing happens to our homeland the war profiteers will keep up or increase the supply of death weapons possible including Biological weapons. These people are capable of anything.Besides this is only a minor skirmish on the way to fighting the Chinese who are competing successfully in world markets.If anyone or any country is a threat to US dominance they have to be destroyed or neutered.
Should the West exhaust war reserve stockpiles, hoping it would have time to rebuild before any future need?
They are for a war, but for our own defense. Is that really what we are doing in Ukraine?
Is regime change in Russia the self-defense goal of the US, for which we should expend our war reserves?
I wish I had a dollar for every time the US decided to send troops to the other side of the world to “defend itself”.
“To offset the strain on NATO stockpiles and to make more money from the war…”
That right there sums up the measure of the West’s involvement: PROFIT. If there were no money to be made from this, Ukrainian ‘freedom’ would just be something spray-painted on a wall just before Russian troops roll by.
The MIC is loving it. But Hillary/Obama must have wanted something more when she escalated US involvement in “soft” regime change there in 2014.
Or perhaps she was attempting to deny something to Russia. Sevastopol and uranium come to mind.
America is prolonging this war to “weaken Russia”. But it sounds more like Russia is weakening NATO. Russia isn’t running out of missiles. Russia isn’t running out of bullets.
Are they not running out of ammunitions? Do they have unlimited supply or weapons? Doesn’t their military budget get scrubbed by 40% annually due to corruption?
Why is it that Russian fighters in the frontline complaint about not having enough ammo to fight? Why have their daily artillery and missile attacks decreased in the last few months? Even pro Russian pundits admit openly to that but not you. You have better information.
Their missile attacks may have reduced, but that’s not what the intelligence community promised america and Ukraine. They said Russia would be “out of missiles” by now, and they’re not.
I never claimed that Russia had infinite ammo. I never claimed Russia’s military wasn’t corrupt (speaking of corrupt money wasting, remind me, who’s MIC “accidentally” loses 21 trillion dollars? was that Russia or America?)
That the best you can claim is that artillery and missile attacks decreased is very telling.
You have accused me of claiming otherwise. But that’s plainly a lie. I never ever claimed otherwise. It’s a testament to either your intelligence or you honesty, but I can’t say which.
Even the Russian hardliners recognize that Russia has not been able to supply its front line troops. That is why Putin keeps changing commanders and he fired the general in charge of procurement.
Oh “even” them. Sure!! Because you say so?
I don’t know the specifics of the supply lines to the front line. But I do know that the american intelligence community claimed that Russia would be out of missiles this summer or fall, but they’ve sustained shooting missiles into the winter.
I’m not a “Russian hardliner”. I don’t want Russia to win. I don’t want Ukraine to win. I don’t want America to win. I want the war to end.
I side with the victims. In this case it is Ukraine. I defer to the Ukrainians on when it is time to end the war.
“Ukraine” is not a victim. Victim is a category that applies to individuals. Ukraine is a country.
As for the people in the government of Ukraine, they are anything but innocent victims. They post hit lists of political dissidents, with photos of their mutilated bodies after the targets are killed. They sell positions in government for money. They make it illegal to be part of opposition parties. They’ve been shelling their own citizens for the past 8 years. They are disgusting and bloodthirsty monsters.
The victims are Ukrainians and Russians both. The criminals are their own governments.
The victims are the Ukrainian people. The Russians are responsible for Putin the same way the Germans were responsible for Hitler’s revanchism.
The majority of Germany were not Nazis and were not responsible in any way. Kinda like Russia.
But if this is your standard, at least be consistent. The Ukrainian people must be responsible for their disgusting and corrupt government too.
People are responsible for what their democratically elected governments do. Ukrainians are responsible for what their government does. If the Ukrainian government allows or encourages oppression of some of its citizens, the Ukrainian people bear some responsibility, just as Americans are responsible for permitting the racial oppression of Black people, Chicanos and Native Americans. But unless Ukraine invades Russia or commits genocide, the status of Ukrainian citizens in Donbas is an internal Ukrainian matter. There is no evidence that there was genocide in Donbas.
When the Soviet Union dissolved 30 years ago to become today’s Russia, Russia wanted to be a part of the Western alliance. We kicked them in the face by saying no, then began pushing NATO to the East. I believe Russia took notice and began preparing for this time in history, and I mean prepare, as in manufacturing and storing war materials. Russia knew that the final link in the eventual encirclement would be the entrance of Ukraine into NATO. The world, a multi-polar world, could have been safer today, more prosperous.
You got this story all mixed up.
Putin asked Clinton when he would let Russia become a part of NATO in 1999, I recall.
What was the response? I imagine that both the Clintons broke out in a hysterical fit of uncontrolled laughter.
So Putin wanted to be part of NATO and the anti-China G7/G8. That just proves that Russia is a revanchist wannabe imperialist country. They wanted to be part of the action and the big boys in the syndicate froze them out.
I support liberation and self determination, not my favorite imperialist power. Why do you support Russian imperialism?
According to Wikipedia the Russian Federation has been engaged in 14 wars since 1991. Russia has been at war every year except 1998. The Ukrainian war is based on Putin’s version of the Monroe Doctrine. Putin believes that Russia has a sphere of influence that gives it the right to intervene in countries that were part of the former Soviet Union or in the Slavic world. Why do you accept this blatant imperialist worldview?
Russia has no more right to dictate Ukraine’s policies and alliances than the US has to dictate to Cuba or Mexico.
……or Ukraine, Iraq, Syria, Serbia, Vietnam, Western Hemisphere, Afghanistan and Iraq.
The US has no right to dictate Ukraine’s policies. And Zelenskyy’s full court press for tanks that the US did not want to give and planes that the US does not want to give show that the Ukrainian resistance is not controlled by the US. I am certain the US would like to control Ukraine. But the US has no more influence over the Ukrainian resistance than it had over the mujahideen the US supported against the USSR.
“NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said” is almost always understood to prefix claims that are incorrect/dishonest.
Why believe that these claims, but only these claims, are correct/honest?
Because the evidence supports his statement. However the basis of his statements focus on more spending on ammunition.
They will fight to the last Ukrainian and they will fight to the last US dollar. When the US collapses the oligarch’s will flee to another host to bleed dry.
How else will NATO fight to the last Ukranian?
More expenditures in an effort to plunder.
Some comments here suggest we are now seeing the West move back to the idea of an endless insurgency in Ukraine, to bleed Russia for having won.
Well, Putin knows that too. He has dealt with it, in Syria and in Chechnya. He is completely ruthless and bloody minded about it, but he does win the insurgency too.
That is perhaps the worst possible thing that the West could do to Ukraine, throwing it into that. They could have had Minsk 2, they could have had the Turkish deal last March.
Perhaps the EU will welcome the vast outpouring of refugees that will never leave. See how it was in Syria, and realize that Ukraine was twice the size, with no Turkey or Lebanon to absorb any of it.
Who employed the nazi Stoltenberg to decide the fates of the world anyway? Does he think we don’t know his hand in the NATO provocations ? The other way around, this freak would be citing R2P and be done with it.
“The other way around, this freak would be citing R2P and be done with it” – that’s exactly how it works. Some people call it double standard but actually it is a kind of the racism or Nazism. The essence is the same.
So basically NATO finally confirmed what Russian sources have been saying for MONTHS. And also confirmed Russian sources saying that Russia is gaining territory in Ukraine
Right now Russia is flat out winning. NATO thinks that 5x NATO artillery production is sufficient to even up the odds, Russia estimates 10x.
Either way, it is looking like the rest of February and all of March will be brutal for Ukraine. The announced military support that NATO talks about supplying Ukraine with would lead to an even more brutal April and May. It is not clear when unannounced military assets will show up, or where.
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/international-news/russia/americans-told-to-leave-russia-asap/
US Tells Americans to Leave Russia ASAP!
Martin Armstrong points to April 23-24 as an important timeframe.
“Stoltenberg Says Ukraine Using Way More Munitions Than NATO Can Produce The NATO chief says the war is depleting the alliance’s stockpiles”
Russia has natural resources, an educated populace, and factories. Russia produces 298,000 artillery shells each month and maybe more nos that their factories are working 24/7.
America produces 15,000 artillery shells a month.
One Russian factory produces 80 tanks a month and then there are several other factories.
America does not make new tanks they just re-manufacture older M1 tanks to a buyers specifications.
Even with America’s dumbed down education you can see the disparity.
Some Euroatlantic elites are begging for a war with Russia, raindancing for it. As if destroying Russia is a requirement for a new Messiah to come to Earth and secure their perpetual mastery over the globe.
Macchiaveli’s wisdom applies to this moment. He said:
“Challenging an established system and forcingva change will bring about all the enmity of those who stand to lose, and bring about only a lukewarm support from those that stand to benefit from it.”.
Russia stood up to the existing order, by design or circumstances. And is challenging existing Western “rules based” order. Those who benefited from the order are sticking together in amimosity to Russia, even by damaging themselves. They are aware of stakes, and are all in.
But the rest of the world that stands to gain from the dismantling of pseudo-colonial “democracy” only
half-heartedly in. With the exception of China that gets it. Most other places are either with Russia but keep on transactional relationships with West, or are with West and keep on transactional relationships with Russia.
Will the awarenes change? Will it become clearer what is at stake ? Will many countries go through crisis that will pit the legacy systems pro-Western by default or by bribery and bring a more nationally minded elite foreard? Or oust national interest minded to restore cimpradir system of West bestowed privledges to those that serve?
Best example is Pakistan, where old comprador style elite suceeded by bribery to orchestrate a Parliamentary coup and oust natiinalist minded Khan. Now Pakistan is back in its role of warlord communuty that rents its subjects into Western militancy, Good old days of American organizinng militant groups to penetrate vulnerable Afghanistan, and through it, penetrate Central Asia, Russia, China.
Millions of poor are at US disposal. Pakistan solves its employment problem,
And while fighting on European front. Russia is trying to get India to wake up and get involved in shoring up weak Afghan government to prevent new militants to take hold.
Biden is probably the most energetic president when it comes to world wide investment in new versions of al-Qarda or ISIS. He is still using these brand names that exist no more — taking time to formulate new terrorists, new “plucky” resistance or “freedom fighters”.
Where is all this money coming from?
Anyone noticed the shockingly long times to get doctors appointments or heavens forbid needs a hip surgery? There are consequenes to money going into militancy .
Assumptions that militancy is the only solution to coexistence in this world is a real problem.
For elite — no sweat. They do not feel it on their skin.
The US is actively recruiting Islamists for terrorist attacks against Russia. The use of jihadists to achieve Washington’s goals is a constant theme of the last few decades.
The US instigated an Islamist uprising in Russia-allied Syria that eventually led to Al-Qaeda’s Al-Nusra and ISIS taking large swathes of territory and murdering civilians for years.
The weaponisation of jihadists appear as Jens Stoltenberg admits that the alliance has depleted stocks of munitions and NATO is loosing the war.
Arrest Biden et al. and present them to the Hague.
Nothing new about that. They did the same 30 years ago in Chechnya.