-
Ukraine is now well-supplied with ammunition seized from Russian retreats, the WSJ reported.
-
Ukrainian soldiers faced severe ammunition shortages early in the war.
-
As most of the weapons are Soviet or Russian, the supply sources for Ukraine are limited.
Ammunition left behind by fleeing Russian forces is filling Ukraine’s depleted stockpiles and powering its counterattack. According to The Wall Street Journal.
Hasty Russian withdrawal from Kharkov In early September, soldiers abandoned large amounts of hardware, including tanks, other armored vehicles, and howitzers.
They also left behind a large quantity of Soviet-caliber shells, the paper reported.
“Russia no longer has a fire superiority,” an artillery officer, who declined to be named, told the newspaper.
“We destroyed all their artillery units before we started the attack. Then we started advancing so fast that they didn’t even have time to refuel and load the tanks. They just ran away and left everything behind.”
As Ukraine advances, its equipment is aimed at the Russian army The recently recaptured city of Lyman In the Donbass region, the WSJ reported.
The recapture of Lyman provides a strategic advantage as the city served as a supply and logistical hub for Russian operations in the region.
Prior to these reversals at Kharkov and Donetsk this fall, Ukraine was struggling to match Russia in sheer volume of firepower.
Much of Ukraine’s military arsenal is Russian or Soviet-made, making it difficult to replenish inventories.
In March, Western officials said Ukrainian forces in Mariupol Resupply by stealing ammunition from Russian soldiers.
By June, Vitaly Kim, governor of the Mykolaiv Southern Region, said, “We are out of ammunition.” Voice of America reported.
The US has exhausted its own reserves According to an unnamed defense official, levels of 155 mm ammunition are “uncomfortably low” and some ammunition is being used in supplies to Ukraine. told the WSJ Late August.
However, this has begun to change since Ukraine’s lightning-fast counterattack in September. When its soldiers recaptured vast territories northeast of Kharkov, Russians dropped guns and abandoned tanks.
A Ukrainian soldier identified only as “Birdy” told The Telegraph “They left behind a huge amount of vehicles and ammunition.
The Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s Twitter account ridiculed the Russians as “the largest supplier of equipment to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.”
Oryx is a project to document and track the use and losses of military equipment. Count 442 Russian tanks As captured by the Ukrainians throughout the entire war. The WSJ reported that 320 tanks had been supplied to Ukraine from elsewhere.
According to Oryx’s calculations, armored fighting vehicles and infantry fighting vehicles captured from Russia also outweigh foreign donations.
Read the original article at business insider