The depletion of the Russian military’s artillery ammunition stocks will likely impact their ability to conduct a high pace of operations near Bakhmut, Donetsk Oblast, and elsewhere in Ukraine, according to the latest update by the Institute for the Study of War.
On Dec. 24, the U.K. Defense Ministry also said that a shortage of munitions highly likely remains the key limiting factor on Russian offensive operations.
Bakhmut, a salt-mining city with a pre-war population of around 70,000, is one of Russia's main targets, as seizing it could allow Russian forces to launch attacks on urban areas such as Kramatorsk and Sloviansk in Donetsk Oblast.
The Wagner Group, which has been conducting a large portion of Russian operations around Bakhmut, uses many poorly-trained convicts it recruited to fight against Ukraine in an attempt to take the city, the U.K. Defense Ministry previously reported.
