Supplying President Volodymyr Zelensk’s forces in Ukraine with Western arms and ammunition has badly depleted Britain’s military stocks, the Minister of State for Defence Procurement has revealed. James Cartlidge of the Conservative Party says the war has left Britain short of tanks, missiles, and munitions.
“[T]here’s been huge support for the way that the UK has stood by Ukraine providing huge numbers of munitions, Storm Shadow [missiles], tanks and so on,” Cartlidge said — exaggerating Britain’s contributions, considering only 14 main battle tanks could be spared from the country’s tiny fleet.
“I think the public wants to know that in doing that, we are replenishing our own stocks and munitions,” he added, confirming the government would have to spend “£10 billion ($12.48 billion) more for munitions.”
It has previously been reported that the British Army would run out of munitions in just ten days of full-scale warfare, speaking to the parlous state of the many European NATO members militaries.
The U.S., which has carried NATO for many years, is also running short on munitions. Biden was forced to consider sending arms to Ukraine without replenishing U.S. stocks. He has already been forced to begin sending Ukraine cluster bombs, outlawed by many NATO members due to their tendency to kill and maim civilians years after their initial use, due to a shortage of conventional munitions.
Russia is believed to be outpacing the West in artillery shell production by three-to-one. Artillery has been vital to the fighting in Ukraine, with Zelensky estimating his forces need a minimum of four million shells. However, the U.S. can only produce 360,000 a year, causing war skeptics such as Senator J.D. Vance to question the wisdom of prolonging the war at U.S. taxpayer expense.
.jpg){kind=link}
