Russia is set to produce nearly three times as many artillery munitions as the U.S. and Europe this year, CNN reported on March 11, citing NATO intelligence estimates and unnamed sources familiar with the matter.
Russia is producing close to 250,000 artillery munitions monthly, or around 3 million per year, according to NATO estimates seen by CNN and the outlet's sources.
Together, the U.S. and Europe can produce approximately 1.2 million munitions annually to send to Ukraine, a senior European intelligence official told CNN.
Kyiv is facing critical ammunition shortages, as $61 billion in funding from the U.S. remains stuck in Congress. Several European countries joined a Czech-led initiative to procure 800,000 sorely needed artillery shells for Ukraine.
The U.S. military aims to produce 100,000 artillery shells a month by the end of 2025, which is still less than half of Russia's monthly production. However, even this figure is now unattainable due to funding issues in Congress, CNN reported.
Russian troops are currently firing 10,000 shells on the battlefield daily, while Ukraine is firing only 2,000, according to the officials.
An unnamed NATO representative said that Russia is running its artillery factories around the clock and had employed about 3.5 million people, compared to 2-2.5 million before the start of the all-out war against Ukraine.
“Their war machine works in full gear,” the intelligence official told CNN, saying that Moscow “put everything they have in the game.”
Despite Russia's ramp-up, Western officials believe that these capacities are "still not enough to meet its needs," saying that they do not expect Moscow to "make major gains" in Ukraine in the short term.
Estonia's Foreign Intelligence Service reported in February that as well as producing new shells, Russia refurbishes Soviet stocks of artillery ammunition, allowing it to produce as many as 4 million units in 2023.
The EU conceded that it would be able to deliver only half of the promised 1 million shells by the March deadline. The European Union's top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said that he urged member states to procure ammunition for Ukraine outside the bloc.
Francis Farrell
