The news of possible ammunition shortfalls comes after money to buy weapons for Ukraine was not included in a stopgap spending bill the US Congress passed at the weekend to avoid a federal government shutdown. Fresh uncertainly over the future of US aid arose Tuesday when US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who advocated for support of Ukraine, was ousted from his leadership position by Republican colleagues.
Military Committee and ’s most senior military official, said of the West’s ammunition stockpile Tuesday during a discussion at the Warsaw Security Forum. “We give away weapons systems to Ukraine, which is great, and ammunition, but not from full warehouses. We started to give away from half-full or lower warehouses in Europe” and those stores are now running low, Bauer said.
allies have contributed billions more. But military leaders acknowledge ammo especially is being used at a staggering rate on the Ukraine battlefields. Ukrainian troops typically fire between 2,000 and 3,000 artillery shells per day at Russian forces, a US defense official told CNN in July. The Pentagon said in July it had provided Ukraine with more than 2 million artillery rounds to date. “This is an artillery intensive fight,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said at the time.
standard 155mm artillery rounds were so low that it was decided to supply Ukraine with controversial cluster munitions.