Ukraine's strike on Russian arms depot destroyed up to 3 months' worth of ammunition, Estonian military intelligence head says
Ukraine's drone strike on the arms depot in Russia's Tver Oblast destroyed two to three months' worth of munitions, Estonian Colonel Ants Kiviselg, head of the Estonian Defense Forces Intelligence Center, said on Sept. 20.
Ukraine launched an overnight attack on Sept. 18 against one of the largest arsenals in Russia, opened in 2018 and built to withstand a nuclear explosion.
According to Estonian news outlet ERR, Kiviselg commented on the strike during an Estonian Defense Ministry press conference.
Ukraine was able to strike the depot because some of the ammunition was not located inside bunkers, causing a chain of explosions that destroyed 30,000 tons of ammunition to explode, Kiviselg said.
"At an average rate of military action, Russia fires 10,000 shells per week. That is, a two-to-three-month supply of ammunition,"
"We will see the consequences of this loss at the front in the coming weeks," Kiviselg said.
The arms depot in Topolets stored ballistic missiles, including Iskanders, anti-aircraft missiles, artillery ammunition, and KAB guided bombs, a source in the Security Service of Ukraine told the Kyiv Independent.
Ukraine has long suffered a disadvantage in terms of ammunition supplies compared to Russia.
Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi told CNN on Sept. 5 that Russian forces currently fire shells at a ratio of around 2:1 to 2.5:1 to Ukrainian forces.
Kateryna Hodunova
