Russian special military operation in Ukraine #54

The topwar.ru comment section is filled with comments calling the Baltic countries a useful corridor to kalingrad.

CNN reports Russian bomb 'changes the balance of power', 03.10.2024.

The most hilarious part of every single Wunderwaffle story released by the western shitstream is how it ends.
Usually with realizing, that Russkie have an equivalent to each of those.
Only five times more powerful, ten times cheaper, and twenty times the number.
It is getting boring, honestly.

So even CNN finally admitting it. And a German company finally breaking ground and will produce 200,000 shells per year That's less than Russia produces in a month. It seems Europe, UK, USA combined won't be able to match Russian production even in the next few years.


CNN
—
Russia appears on track to produce nearly three times more artillery munitions than the US and Europe, a key advantage ahead of what is expected to be another Russian offensive in Ukraine later this year.

Russia is producing about 250,000 artillery munitions per month, or about 3 million a year, according to NATO intelligence estimates of Russian defense production shared with CNN, as well as sources familiar with Western efforts to arm Ukraine. Collectively, the US and Europe have the capacity to generate only about 1.2 million munitions annually to send to Kyiv, a senior European intelligence official told CNN.

The US military set a goal to produce 100,000 rounds of artillery a month by the end of 2025 — less than half of the Russian monthly output — and even that number is now out of reach with $60 billion in Ukraine funding stalled in Congress, a senior Army official told reporters last week

What we are in now is a production war,” a senior NATO official told CNN. “The outcome in Ukraine depends on how each side is equipped to conduct this war.”

Officials say Russia is currently firing around 10,000 shells a day, compared to just 2,000 a day from the Ukrainian side. The ratio is worse in some places along the 600-mile front, according to a European intelligence official.

The shortfall comes at perhaps the most perilous moment for Ukraine’s war effort since Russia first marched on Kyiv in February 2022. US money for arming Ukraine has run out and Republican opposition in Congress has effectively halted giving any more.

Meanwhile, Russia recently took the Ukrainian city of Avdiivka and is widely seen as having the initiative on the battlefield. Ukraine is struggling not just with ammunition but also growing manpower shortages on the front lines.

The US and its allies have given Ukraine a number of highly sophisticated systems, including the M-1 Abrams tank and, soon, F-16 fighter jets. But military analysts say the war will likely be won or lost based on who fires the most artillery shells.

“The number one issue that we’re watching right now is the munitions,” the NATO official said. “It’s those artillery shells, because that’s where Russia really [is] mounting a significant production advantage and mounting a significant advantage on the battlefield.”

Russian war machine in ‘full gear’
Russia is running artillery factories “24/7” on rotating 12-hour shifts, the NATO official said. About 3.5 million Russians now work in the defense sector, up from somewhere between 2 and 2.5 million before the war. Russia is also importing ammunition: Iran sent at least 300,000 artillery shells last year — “probably more than that,” the official said — and North Korea provided at least 6,700 containers of ammunition carrying millions of shells.

Russia has “put everything they have in the game,” the intelligence official said. “Their war machine works in full gear.”

A rough equivalent in the US would be if President Joe Biden invoked the Defense Production Act, a US official said, which gives the president power to order companies to produce equipment expeditiously to support the nation’s national defense.

European nations are trying to make up the shortfall. A German defense company announced last month that it plans to open an ammunition factory in Ukraine that it said will produce hundreds of thousands of 155mm caliber bullets each year. In Germany, the same company broke ground on a new factory expected to eventually produce around 200,000 artillery shells per year

Full article
https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/10/politics/russia-artillery-shell-production-us-europe-ukraine/index.html

Russia is producing about 250,000 artillery munitions per month, or about 3 million a year, according to NATO intelligence estimates of Russian defense production shared with CNN, as well as sources familiar with Western efforts to arm Ukraine. Collectively, the US and Europe have the capacity to generate only about 1.2 million munitions annually to send to Kyiv, a senior European intelligence official told CNN.

And this is only the beginning.
Russia can just trade next hundreds of thousands rounds from its friendly countries like Iran and North Korea.
Not to even mention the latest news, that - mysteriously correlated in time - China ceased to export explosives grade cotton to the west. At all.
And that the very first 122mm cal ammunition suspiciously similar to the Chinese produced appeared in the hands of Russkie. Accidentally, of course.

And now try to imagine, that the very same sick bastard warmongers are trying to push another conflict with China.

My guess is that the sole thing than nano Napleon is trying, is to push Russkie out of Africa.
He is not capable of doing so, but can create some kind of political leverage using other European stupid enough to catch that bait.

GarryB wrote:
The hilarious thing is that if the US forces SWIFT to kick out China... well they wont be able to, because if they did then BRICS will set up an alternative not based in Europe and the rest of the world will likely switch to that.

The Russians already have a system, using the SWIFT file format as well, so a relatively easy move out of the Belgian version.

"According to the statistics kept by our security forces, from February 2022 to the present, the losses of NATO countries are 121 officers and 96 sergeants.
In addition, there are more than 270 “vacationers” and 6,894 private military personnel.

In total, during this time, sanitary losses of non-Ukrainian citizens in the theater of operations of Ukraine amounted to about 30 thousand people."
https://t.me/condottieros/2

https://twitter.com/GeromanAT/status/1767124012360966161

franco wrote:"According to the statistics kept by our security forces, from February 2022 to the present, the losses of NATO countries are 121 officers and 96 sergeants.
In addition, there are more than 270 “vacationers” and 6,894 private military personnel.

So that's 217 serving and 270 serving but on leave, so 487 with an unknown number of lower ranks, certainly in the first figure.

Probably most in AD and sea operations (Odessa area).

Difficult to keep below the radar in their own countries but seemingly successful in doing so to date.

The first one seems to have hit something a bit different to the second, or it was a different type of bomb.

JohninMK wrote:

So that's 217 serving and 270 serving but on leave, so 487 with an unknown number of lower ranks, certainly in the first figure.

Probably most in AD and sea operations (Odessa area).

Difficult to keep below the radar in their own countries but seemingly successful in doing so to date.

Wonder how many of the 6894 PMC are regulars, who were encouraged to go private, instead of re-upping as they would have normally done?

Bit of a puzzle this Russian 'casualty'.