As of: January 24, 2024, 7:34 p.m
By: Bettina Menzel
Comments
Press
Split
Ukrainian soldiers prepare to shoot down a 2S1 artillery unit on Russian positions in the Kharkiv region (November 2023).
© IMAGO/Madeleine Kelly/Zuma Wire
Further US military aid to Ukraine is pending.
Meanwhile, Kiev's acute shortage of ammunition is making itself felt on the battlefield.
Russia makes successful advances.
Kiev – Since the beginning of the year, Ukraine has been warning more and more urgently about an acute shortage of ammunition.
Now the lack of projectiles and rockets seems to be concretely reflected in positions on the battlefield.
In the Ukraine War, Russia makes advances on various front lines, while Kiev's troops have to partially withdraw.
“Lack of ammunition” in the Ukraine war leads to Russian territorial gains
At the beginning of January, Ukrainian General Najew spoke of the acute shortage of ammunition in the Ukrainian air defense system.
The ammunition for Ukraine's mobile air defense systems is sufficient "to withstand the next violent attacks," Najew told the AFP news agency during a visit to troops near Kiev.
In the medium and long term, however, his country “of course needs the help of Western countries” to replenish its missile stocks.
“The lack of ammunition is a very real and urgent problem that our troops are currently facing,” Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said last week.
The war in Ukraine had become a “battle for ammunition,” said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
The lack of ammunition is now apparently having an impact on the battlefield.
“Tactical progress” for Russia in the Ukraine war: Putin’s army gains ground on the front
For example, Russia wants to “liberate” the town of Wesele in the Donetsk region, as the Defense Ministry in Moscow said last week.
The village is about 20 kilometers away from the industrial city of Bakhmut, which Russian troops captured in May after months of particularly fierce fighting.
Despite numerous strategic problems in the Russian military, Moscow's troops also recently managed to make "small tactical advances, particularly at Kupyansk in the Kharkiv region and at Avdiivka in the Donetsk region," according to war experts at the US think tank Institute for the Study of War (ISW). reported on Tuesday.
In addition, geolocated images show that Russian forces have advanced northeast of Novomikhailivka in the southwest of Donetsk.
According to war experts from the ISW, the Russians also made a small advance westwards in the direction of Swatowe-Kreminna.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian troops had to withdraw from the village of Krochmalne in the southeast of Kupyansk, a spokesman for the ground forces said on Ukrainian television on Tuesday.
My news
'Played video games': Ukraine soldier explains stunning coup against Putin's T90M tanks
Söder's coalition approves a list of AfD judges - the Greens and the SPD don't play along
“Demo hopping”?
Söder's head of the state chancellery points out reprimands for Aiwanger
Crews resort to unorthodox tactics against Houthi attacks in the Red Sea
The Baerbock plane circles over the Red Sea for an hour – then the captain has to “bite the bullet”.
New survey hammer: Wagenknecht party swallows the traffic lights in the east
A lack of ammunition is also noticeable in air defense: Heavy air strikes on Kiev and Kharkiv
The Russian army attacked Ukraine with 41 rockets on Tuesday night, the military leadership in Kiev announced on Tuesday.
Of these, 21 were intercepted, it said.
At least eight people died in the air strikes and almost 80 others were injured.
Russia has used a new combination of weapons that is “probably intended to penetrate Ukrainian air defenses,” the ISW experts analyzed.
For the first time in a long time, no Shahed drones were used, but perhaps decoys were used to “test the effectiveness,” the analysis continued.
The Ukrainian armed forces said they shot down all Kh-101/555/55 missiles, five Iskander missiles and two Kh-59 missiles.
“Of course you want more, you want 100 percent of the result,” admitted Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ignat in an article in the Ukrainian newspaper
New Voice
on Tuesday.
Wherever it was possible to repel Russian attacks, Ukraine's air defense did so, the spokesman further emphasized.
At the same time, Ignat emphasized the importance of replenishing the Cheetah, Iris-T or Patriot anti-aircraft missile shells used in such defense.
Lack of US arms deliveries in the Ukraine war: Ammunition shortage is a medium and long-term problem
Since the beginning of the war, the United States has been Ukraine's main supporter.
At the end of the year, the last US aid package to date, totaling $250 million (around €230 million), went to Kiev.
US President Joe Biden has requested a further 60 billion US dollars (around 55 million euros), but the Republicans are currently blocking the release of the funds in the US Congress.
In the dispute over the federal budget, Congress voted last week for an interim solution, but this excludes the aid for Kiev requested by the government.
Without US support, Putin could win the war against Ukraine, according to fears in Kiev and Washington.
Ukrainian military units “do not have the necessary stocks of ammunition” in the fight against Russia
Some military units in Ukraine "do not have the stocks of ammunition they need," warned US Deputy Defense Secretary Celeste Wallander on Tuesday,
Newsweek
reported.
Ukraine itself is doing what it can: The Cabinet of Ministers in Kiev recently allocated around 657 million hryvnias (around 16 million euros) to strengthen Ukraine's defense capacities, including for the purchase of ammunition, drones and weapons maintenance.
Compared to the US's previous aid packages, this is a drop in the ocean.
After all, Great Britain has already promised military aid worth 2.5 billion pounds (2.9 billion euros) to Ukraine this year.
On Tuesday, NATO concluded contracts for 200,000 artillery shells worth 1.1 billion euros - parts of which could also go to Kiev.
Support from Germany: This military aid should go to Ukraine in 2024
Germany also wants to continue to support Ukraine militarily.
Further deliveries are planned, including additional Iris-T air defense systems and Gepard tanks, artillery and artillery ammunition, over 80 Leopard 1 A5 main battle tanks as well as additional armored personnel carriers, engineer tanks and bridge-laying vehicles.
In addition, 450 protected vehicles, mine clearance systems as well as drones, radar units and reconnaissance systems will go to Ukraine, as Federal Defense Minister Boris Pistorius announced on Tuesday.
In addition, six Sea King Mk41 multi-purpose helicopters are scheduled to go to Kiev in the second quarter of the year.
In total, the Federal Republic has provided military aid worth six billion euros since the beginning of the war in Ukraine.