UK Defense Ministry: Russia's ammunition shortage behind 'no significant offensives' in Ukraine

Russian artillery ammunition deficit, likely aggravating over the recent weeks, has led to "extremely" tight ammunition restrictions in many areas of Ukraine's front line, the U.K. Defense Ministry reported on March 14. 

"This has almost certainly been a key reason why no Russian formation has recently been able to generate operationally significant offensive action," reads the ministry's latest intelligence update. 

According to the ministry, the Russian military has "almost certainly" resorted to issuing old ammunition previously classified as unusable.

The U.K. Defense Ministry also cited Russia's presidential decree of March 3, 2023, which allows Russia's Ministry of Trade and Industry to remove the powers of the defense industries' heads who do not perform production tasks.

Moscow is "increasingly applying the principles of a command economy to its military-industrial complex" as it realizes that its military production capabilities are "a key vulnerability in the increasingly attritional" full-scale war against Ukraine. 

Ukraine's Armed Forces are also suffering from ammunition shortages, which Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba recently called the country's "number one problem" in its attempt to fight back Russian forces. 

On March 8 in Stockholm, European Union defense ministers agreed to ramp up the supply of ammunition to Ukraine but have yet to reach a "concrete and formal decision."