Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Ammunition for Ukraine tops NATO defense chiefs’ agenda
BRUSSELS — With Russia bearing down on a strategically important city in eastern Ukraine, NATO defense ministers gathered in Brussels on Tuesday to discuss ways of continuing to provide military support to Kyiv, whose forces are expending ammunition faster than allies can produce it.
As Russia continues to make grinding gains — particularly around the fiercely contested eastern city of Bakhmut — and the war nears its first anniversary, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said in opening remarks that the meeting was taking place at “a critical time for our security” and would “address the urgent needs for increased support to Ukraine.”
Ukrainian officials have said that they are in dire need of more Soviet-caliber ammunition for the T-72 tanks they already possess in large numbers, as well as NATO-caliber artillery shells to work with allied-supplied heavy guns. Before the meeting, Stoltenberg said that the war “is consuming an enormous amount of munitions and depleting allied stockpiles,” and that allies would discuss how to expand production to support Ukraine and replenish their own arsenals.
“The current rate of Ukraine’s ammunition expenditure is many times higher than our current rate of production,” he said. “This puts our defense industries under strain.”
Even as NATO countries try to ramp up manufacturing, waiting times to secure new large-caliber ammunition have grown from 12 months to 28 months, even if contracts are signed immediately, Stoltenberg said.
The Pentagon is already racing to increase production of artillery shells by 500% within two years, pushing conventional ammunition production to levels not seen since the Korean War.
Ukrainian and Russian troops are firing thousands of howitzer rounds at each other every day, U.S. officials say, along front lines more than 600 miles long.
The two-day meeting, and the meeting with the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, are part of a series of diplomatic gatherings this week.
High on the list of Ukraine’s requests has been Western fighter jets — a topic that was certain to be discussed, Stoltenberg said, even if approval to provide them, let alone deliver them, seems distant.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian authorities are stepping up efforts to persuade remaining civilians to leave Bakhmut in the face of a sustained Russian assault, a regional official said Tuesday, adding to signs that Kyiv may be preparing to retreat from a city it has defended fiercely for months.
The city, which had a prewar population of around 70,000, has steadily been emptying as the fighting has intensified. Fewer than 5,000 residents are still there, about 140 of them children, said Pavlo Kyrylenko, the head of the regional military administration.
“The military must focus on preparing defensive lines,” Kyrylenko said Tuesday.
Bakhmut has been the focus of a grinding Russian campaign along the roughly 140-mile eastern front.