Kiev forces are almost out of ammunition and can only rely on Western-supplied arms in the battle against Russia, a top Ukrainian intelligence official has said.
“This is an artillery war now,” Vadim Skibitsky, the deputy head of Ukraine’s military intelligence, told The Guardian on Friday.
Ranged combat is going to decide the outcome of the conflict between the two countries, “and we are losing in terms of artillery,” he acknowledged.
Ukrainian troops are currently firing 5,000 to 6,000 artillery rounds a day, and their stockpiles are running out fast, the intelligence official said. “We have almost used up all of our [artillery] ammunition and are now using 155-caliber NATO standard shells,” he said.
Kiev is also severely outgunned in the Donbass, having almost run out of the Soviet- and Russia-designed artillery pieces it had at the start of Moscow’s military operation, according to Skibitsky. “Ukraine has one artillery piece to 10 to 15 Russian artillery pieces,” he pointed out.