Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that deliveries of artillery shells from the US have “decreased” since Israel unleashed its relentless bombing campaign in Gaza following the October 7 Hamas attack.
The US has provided Ukraine with a huge amount of artillery ammunition since Russia launched its invasion last year, including over 2 million 155mm shells. But supplies are strained as Ukraine is using ammunition at a much faster rate than can be produced by the entire NATO alliance.
Supplies are even more strained now that the US is backing Israel’s onslaught in Gaza. The support includes near-daily weapons shipments. Axios recently reported that the US had diverted 155mm shells initially bound for Ukraine to Israel to replenish an ammunition stockpile in the country.
“Our deliveries have decreased,” Zelensky told reporters on November 16, according to AFP. “It’s not like the US said: we don’t give Ukraine any. No! It’s just that everyone is fighting for (stockpiles) themselves … This is life. I’m not saying that this is positive, but this is life, and we have to defend what’s ours.”
According to Defense One, Ukraine fires about 240,000 155mm artillery shells per month, significantly higher than US monthly production rates. The US has ramped up its monthly production rate to 28,000 shells and is working to reach a goal of 80,000.
Besides the tightening supplies, the Biden administration also has yet to secure new funding for the proxy war in Ukraine. President Biden asked Congress to authorize $61 billion to fund the conflict for another year, but US lawmakers appear more focused on arming and supporting Israel.
$61 BILLION EFFING BUCKS??? Time for Joe to go.
The trouble is we are going to get the same from any of the GOP candidates for President.
And if the $61 billion doesn’t go to Ukraine it will go to one of their preferred wars.
And, anyway, 61 billion dollars is not really all that much, in perspective. The real US “defense” budget is well over a trillion dollars. The overall Federal budget is over 6 trillion. And the overall GDP of the USA is over 23 trillion. 61 billion is a rounding error!
The US and the West simply don’t have the weapons and ammo to give to the Ukraine. That’s the real “shortage.” You can’t just fire dollar bills, or even hundred dollar bills, at the Russian front lines. You need actual shells. And you need to be able to replace and retool the actual artillery barrels when they wear out. Money isn’t everything.
Bad analogy alert: You could pay me a million dollars (or ten million!) to play second base for the New York Yankees, but I would still suck!
First base. You don’t have to run as much.
FJB
Mr. Zelensky, it is time for you to head for the high hills. Your mansion in Florida, or, your nice little place in Italy. You can practice your piano playing there.
I’m with Zelensky in his outrage on this one. Do we all of sudden prefer to kill Palestinians over Russians? What happened to racial equality?
Z, you are not entitled to massive amounts of free American arms forever, just to make the pointless war you cannot win not end yet. Those shells are needed for another pointless war that cannot be won. So sorry for your loss. Move on.
Things are looking grim for the Banderites. Getting to the negotiating table ASAP would be in everyone’s best interests.
Glad to hear some good news for a change. There may be and end of the Ukraine conflict in the near future after all!
Geez, maybe the light bulb will finally go on. I guess having Ukraine do a counteroffensive without the weaponry needed and based instead on “hope and courage” or saying Ukraine was being “casualty adverse” because they won’t send troops though minefields or saying the war was to “weaken Russia”or it was a “good investment” just might make the realization that they are being used as fodder sink in.
Yes. But why didn’t the Ukrainians see this coming right from the beginning. Did they really think that, in the long run, they could win a conventional, slug it out mano a mano, war with Russia? Why would they? What could Biden, et al, possibly have “promised” Z and company that would have made up for the size difference? The manpower gap? The weaponry gap? Is it just that Z and company had no choice, because of the hard liners within the Ukraine? Did Biden make Z an “offer he couldn’t refuse?” What really happened in late 2021/early 2022 that induced Z to roll the dice?
Indeed. What sort of military prowess do Ukraine’s top brass have, to have gone along with this lunacy from the beginning? Their general staff seems to be pretty aware of their situation, so I suppose they found it politically expedient to stay alive instead of giving rational advice to Der Führer.
Yes. But why didn’t the Ukrainians see this coming right from the beginning. Did they really think that, in the long run, they could win a conventional, slug it out mano a mano, war with Russia? Why would they? What could Biden, et al, possibly have “promised” Z and company that would have made up for the size difference? The manpower gap? The weaponry gap? Is it just that Z and company had no choice, because of the hard liners within the Ukraine? Did Biden make Z an “offer he couldn’t refuse?” What really happened in late 2021/early 2022 that induced Z to roll the dice?
Tough Shit.
Open a factory. Problem solved.
The shell shortage is just a part of it.
https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/new-raft-of-articles-tighten-the?
Shell shortages, yes. But also artillery barrels wearing out. Fewer drones than the Russians. Russians dig better trenches than the Ukies. Ukies taking big losses. The sanctions have failed. Russia is selling oil above the “price cap” imposed by the West. It is running a budget surplus as well. Russia is outproducing the West when it comes to weapons and ammunition. The Ukraine lost more territory than it gained in 2023, despite the much ballyhooed “counteroffensive.” Etc, etc.
Even the neo con, warmongering, MIC cheerleader Richard Haass states (in Foreign Affairs, long considered to be the de facto house organ of the US FP Establishment):
Time will not be on Ukraine’s side if a high-intensity war drags on indefinitely. Russia’s economy and its defense industrial base are on a war footing. Moscow is also importing arms from North Korea and Iran and has access to consumer items that contain technology that it can repurpose for military uses. Should Russia need to reinforce its military presence in Ukraine, it has a large pool of manpower on which to draw. Russia has also found new markets for its energy, while sanctions have had only a modest effect on the Russian economy. Putin appears politically secure and in control of the levers of power, from the military and security services to the media and public narrative.
The Wall Street Journal:
Putin has reason to believe that time is on his side. At the front line, there are no indications that Russia is losing what has become a war of attrition. The Russian economy has been buffeted, but it is not in tatters. Putin’s hold on power was, paradoxically, strengthened following Yevgeny Prigozhin’s failed rebellion in June. Popular support for the war remains solid, and elite backing for Putin has not fractured….
Putin does not feel any pressure to end the war or worry about his ability to sustain it more or less indefinitely.
According to the Times of London, Putin is having his “best month” since the war began.
All of the above, and more, is why we are now seeing calls for ceasefire talks even from the most maniacally one-sided, pro Ukie, pro war, pro MIC, Western MSM. The Ukraine is losing. If it were winning, we wouldn’t hear any such calls. Even if things were truly a “stalemate,” the Western FP establishment would most likely think that is at least minimally “good enough” (keeps the Russians engaged and unable to create any “mischief” anywhere else, and no Westerners are actually dying, so the opposition at home is still muted). No, it is precisely because the Ukraine, by all objective measures, is losing, that its backers in the West NOW want to give diplomacy a try. If you can’t win on the battlefield, try to win at the conference table. It has happened before….
Agree with this 100%. I wonder where the usual suspects are? They seem to be on vacation. Or maybe they are now in the Palestinian genocide threads getting paid to promote Israeli nazi propaganda instead of Ukrainian nazi propaganda.
Get back in line.