Russia wants to tackle one of its biggest problems

Reports circulated recently that Russia was running low on missiles and ammunition during the war in Ukraine. Now the Kremlin seems to be taking countermeasures with a major initiative – or at least wants to give the impression that.

According to a report by Russia’s state news agency Ria Novosti, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced at a meeting at the headquarters of the Russian Armed Forces that ammunition production has been ramped up many times over. “This is both conventional and high-precision munitions,” the bureau quotes Schoigu as saying. The defense minister claims that this is how Russia can achieve its war goals.

The companies producing ammunition had previously been checked for the purpose of the “state defense order”, writes Ria Nowosti. Schoigu was informed by the company managers about modernization and expansion plans for their factories.

The statements cannot be independently verified. But one thing is clear: Russia and Ukraine are facing ammunition problems. In mid-March, the British Ministry of Defense announced in an intelligence update that Russia apparently ran out of missile stocks and that other products, such as grenades, also looked bad.

According to the British, Russia would have already resorted to old ammunition stocks that were actually classified as unusable. Shells should also be strictly rationed at the front. London sees this as “certainly one of the main reasons” why Russia has recently failed to launch an “operationally significant offensive”.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of Wagner’s mercenary unit, has been complaining for weeks about the lack of ammunition and support for his fighters at the front. In an audio message on the Telegram channel “Prigozhin’s press service”, he recently complained that the Ministry of Defense ignored his calls.

“So that I no longer ask for ammunition, all special telephones in all offices, in all departments and so on were switched off for me,” says the Wagner boss in the recording. According to Prigozhin, the Wagner group alone is using 10,000 tons of ammunition per month in the battle for the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.

Ukraine also suffers from a lack of ammunition. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told Bild am Sonntag in mid-March that a lack of ammunition was the “number one” problem in the fight against the Russian occupiers. “Germany could really help more with ammunition. With artillery ammunition,’ he said.

Shortly afterwards, EU countries agreed to supply Ukraine with one million artillery rounds over the next 12 months. According to German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, the additional ammunition must be purchased through existing national framework agreements, but also through a new European tender project. “This is how we bundle Europe’s market power,” said Pistorius. “It’s never existed in this form before.”

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