Britain’s defence minister has warned that Ukraine must learn to fight while using weapons and ammunition more sparingly, or face the possibility of running out.
Ben Wallace, the UK’s Secretary of Defence, has warned that Ukraine must learn to fight like a “Western” nation, saying that the country risks running out of weapons and ammunition in its fight against Russia if it continues to fail to use its resources sparingly.
The Conservative Party official’s warning comes as Ukraine’s war efforts begin to run the country’s own supply of munitions dry, but also those of a number of European nations keen to see the country win its fight against Russia.
According to a report by The Telegraph, Wallace is now warning that the Eastern European nation must become more economical with its weaponry, saying that it must learn to fight like a NATO member rather than an old satellite state of the Soviet Union.
“The Russian, or the Soviet, way of fighting is very ammunition heavy [with] massive artillery barrages,” he reportedly explained. “That’s never how we have organised ourselves to fight in the West and in Nato.”
“Ukraine uses huge amounts of ammunition to defend itself, partly that’s why we’re training them to fight in a Western way,” he added, arguing that such training is needed to make the country both “more effective on the ground” while at the same time addressing the munitions shortfalls of Western states.
Such a shortfall appears to be becoming an ever greater factor in this ongoing conflict.
Officials in a number of Western nations have already warned that nations are putting themselves at risk by sending huge amounts of weapons, vehicles, and ammunition to Ukraine without the ability to replenish their stock.
To make matters worse, even taking into account Western supplies, Ukraine is quickly burning through all the ammunition that could possibly be made available to them.
For example, Ukraine is believed to be firing 6,000 artillery shells a day — millions of rounds a year at that level — a rate that is reportedly far higher than the speed at which the West is able to produce them.
As a result, it appears that the country must find a way of getting more bang for its buckshot, or risk the possibility of Russia ultimately winning a war of attrition.
“If they can be very accurate in their use of artillery instead of having to use hundreds of shells to pin down a Russian unit, they can only use two or three because they can see exactly where the shot falls,” Wallace explained.
Even with the ammunition issue under control however, issues surrounding the number of weapons being sent to Ukraine remain, with officials in both Germany and the UK now saying that their militaries are being left short as a result of the donations.
“Ukraine is depleting our military stockpiles and the Government is acting too slowly to replenish them,” one Labour MP remarked last week, telling the country’s media that there was now an “immediate need for a stockpile strategy” in the country.
Meanwhile, Germany’s army chief has openly admitted that the political decisions to send tanks and other weapons to Ukraine have left the country’s armoury “bare”, warning that there will come a point when the German army can “can no longer do [its] jobs”.
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