The large and varied consumption of artillery shells during the conflict with Russia is a “nightmare” for the logistics of the Ukrainian Army.
On October 31, the British news agency Reuters cited an article by Atramazoglu, a retired Greek army officer who said that, due to the intensity of the current war, the ammunition consumption of the Ukrainian Army has up to 6,000 rounds a day.
In particular, the “diversity and abundance” of artillery aid and from many different countries has left the Ukrainian army facing serious logistical problems, which could lead to a “logistic nightmare”.
Stavros Atramazoglu is an independent journalist from Greece; he served time in the General Staff and the Hellenic Navy; he graduated from Johns Hopkins University and his articles have been published in the famous American site Business Insider and other media sites.
Atramazoglu published an article on the American page of 1945 on October 30, stating that, despite successfully holding off Russian troops on the battlefield, Ukraine’s ammunition stockpile is being depleted by the frequency of firing up to 6,000 rounds per day.
Atramazoglu also pointed out that ammunition consumption is not the only problem for the Ukrainian military, but that owning a variety of artillery is a real “nightmare”.
Currently, the Ukrainian Army is using guns of 122mm and 152mm howitzers of the Soviet era, to 155mm M777 howitzers made by the US. And the difference in caliber means that Ukraine cannot use the same ammunition between artillery units; this can lead to a “logistic nightmare”.
And yet, the fact that the Ukrainian cannons had to use their “full capacity” led to rapid damage, especially wear and tear on the barrel and the anti-reversing part of the cannon. Besides being destroyed in combat, leading to a shortage of spare parts; Therefore, the combat coefficient of artillery weapons is very low.
The article also mentions that the administration of US President Biden has approved another aid plan for Ukraine, the latest military aid package worth $275 million in the 24th round of aid, mainly to provide assistance to Ukraine, supplies more ammunition for the Ukrainian army, which is increasingly depleted.
Aid package 24 includes additional ammunition for the HIMARS rocket system, 500 M982 Excalibur precision-guided rounds for the 155mm cannon, 2,000 rounds of 155mm long-range anti-armored ammunition (RAAM) and more than 270,000 rounds of ammunition of artillery shells, etc.
Atramazoglu also said in the article that the US has provided or promised to provide nearly $18 billion in military aid to Ukraine since the start of the war; and if from January 2021, the total amount of US military aid has exceeded 18.5 billion USD;
The US is by far the largest supplier of arms aid to Ukraine, followed by the UK, the European Union and Poland. The number of aid weapons is very diverse, from offensive weapons to defensive weapons, military equipment, medicine, necessities … and it is this military aid that has helped the Ukrainian Army stand firm against the offensive momentum of the Russian army.
The Russian news agency RIA Novosti mentioned in an article that Russia has repeatedly accused the West of aggravating the current conflict. The Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia have repeatedly emphasized that foreign weapons and equipment in Ukraine are legitimate targets of the Russian military.
RIA Novosti previously cited an article in the US “Wall Street Journal”, interviewing a Ukrainian military officer who said that heavy snowfall in winter will not only bring traditional problems such as severe cold and muddy roads, but also presented the Ukrainian army with camouflage problems.
When the forest is in the deciduous season, its artillery positions or ballistic trajectory will also be more difficult to keep secret, easily exposed to the dense reconnaissance system of Russia, making artillery and defense positions of Ukraine is vulnerable to aerial attacks by the Russian Army’s UAVs, which have been put into service exponentially in recent times.