For some countries, the replenishment of weapons stocks turned out to be a rather difficult process.
20 out of 30 NATO member countries have exhausted their resources for supplying weapons to Ukraine. However, the remaining 10 countries can provide more.
As one of the NATO officials reported in a comment to The New York Times, 10 countries, including France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, can transfer a significant amount of weapons to Ukraine.
In general, since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation, NATO has already transferred weapons to Ukraine for a total amount of 40 billion dollars. This corresponds to the annual defense budget of France. However, both sides of the conflict are spending weapons and ammunition at unprecedented rates, the West was not ready for this.
As the newspaper writes, the tempo of the artillery duels is especially stunning. In the summer, the Ukrainians fired 6-7 thousand artillery shells per day, and the occupiers – approximately 40-50 thousand. For example, in Afghanistan, NATO forces could fire 300 artillery rounds a day and not worry about air defense. For comparison: the US produces only 15,000 shells per month.
“A day in Ukraine is a month or more in Afghanistan,” said NYT defense expert and former NATO Assistant Secretary General Camilla Grand.
Military aid to Ukraine
On November 16, the head of the Pentagon, Lloyd Austin, announced that seven countries intend to provide Ukraine with air defense systems. At the same time, he noted that within the framework of the Contact Group on the Defense of Ukraine, great efforts must be made to cover the urgent needs of Kyiv in air defense systems.
The Minister of Defense of Ukraine, Oleksiy Reznikov, commenting on the meeting of the Contact Group on Defense of Ukraine, stated that the defense of the sky will be priority #1 for Kyiv.
On November 16, the coordination group “Ramstein-7” agreed on the supply of air defense systems, shells for MLRS, barrel artillery and winter uniforms to Ukraine.
On November 23, the USA announced the allocation of 400 million dollars to strengthen the Armed Forces.
