Scott Ritter’s latest analysis in Consortium News warns participants in the G7 and NATO summits against their dangerous fantasy about weakening Russia or teaching Russia a lesson over Ukraine. His conclusion: “This is the ugly truth about Ukraine today — the longer the war continues, the more Ukrainians will die, and the weaker NATO will become.”
Ritter, a former Marine intelligence officer and former UN weapons inspector in Iraq, cites the evaluation by Oleksandr Danylyuk, a former senior adviser to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense and Intelligence Services, as unusually candid. Danylyuk noted: “The strategies and tactics of the Russians are completely different right now. They are being much more successful. They have more resources than us and they are not in a rush. There’s much less space for optimism right now.”
Ritter calculates that Ukraine is at the end of the line on all Soviet-era weaponry, leaving them dependent upon largely unfamiliar Western artillery being shipped in. So, “Ukraine is left doling out what is left of its former Soviet ammunition while trying to absorb modern Western 155mm artillery systems, such as the Caesar self-propelled gun from France and the U.S.-made M777 howitzer. Hence, the reduced capability means that Ukraine is only able to fire some 4,000-to-5,000 artillery rounds per day, while Russia responds with more than 50,000. This 10-fold disparity in firepower has proven to be one of the most decisive factors when it comes to the war in Ukraine, enabling Russia to destroy Ukrainian defensive positions with minimal risk to its own ground forces.”
