Articles in today’s New York Times and yesterday’s Politico report Ukraine’s extreme dearth of ammunition, accompanied by the growing death and casualty rate of the Ukrainian armed forces. Some reports are not new, but the fact that these mainstream media outlets, along with the March 14 Washington Post, now report these obvious facts more openly is the news, indicating a growing back-and-forth tension in United States political layers as to whether to slog on with this bloody war that could escalate to nuclear annihilation.
The New York Times article, “Ukraine Burns Through Ammunition in Bakhmut, Risking Future Fights,” reports, “The [Ukrainian] military is using thousands of artillery shells a day as it tries to hold the eastern city, which could jeopardize a planned spring offensive.”
The Times says, “a senior American defense official described [Ukraine’s Bakhmut defense] as a ‘last-ditch’ effort because Ukraine’s allies do not have enough ammunition to keep up with Ukraine’s pace and their stocks are critically low. Western manufacturers are ramping up production, but it will take many months for new supplies to begin meeting demand.” It further discloses, “the United States hopes to produce 90,000 artillery shells per month, but this is likely to take two years.”
