Ukrainian defenders no longer experience shell shortages on frontlines, General Staff source says
Illustrative photo: OLEG PETRASYUK / EPA

Currently, the situation with shells for the Defense Forces "has become easier", said a LIGA.net source at the General Staff of the Armed Forces. Quantitative indicators are not specified, but some of them were announced earlier.

At the end of April, the source reported that the ratio of shots fired between the Defense Forces and the Russian military was about one to ten.

"We take this into account. We have to shoot accurately in order to spend less ammunition on one target," he explained at the time.

The interlocutor recalled that in the summer of 2023, the Russians used about 10,000-15,000 per day, while the Ukrainian defenders fired 10,000 rounds.

At the time there was "relative parity", but then the Russians increased the number of shots to 20,000 from August to the end of 2023, and Ukraine was still on 10,000, he explained.

Since the beginning of 2024, the Russian have been firing 60,000 to 70,000 rounds every day, which is enabled through cooperation with countries like Iran, the interlocutor noted.

However, according to the source, at the end of April, the Defense Forces were firing about 13,000 shots per day, and now in this sense "it has become easier."

On May 26, First Deputy Minister of Defense Ivan Havryliuk said in an interview with his department that the ratio of shots is already one to five on average in favor of the aggressor.

On the morning of Friday, the spokesman of the Khortytsia operational-strategic troop grouping, Nazar Voloshyn, told LIGA.net the number of shellings by the enemy and firing missions performed by the defenders per day.

According to him, now the ratio from the Kharkiv axis to the former Avdiivka axis is as follows: the Russians fired 3,618 shots at the positions of the Ukrainian troops, while the artillery units of the Defense Forces carried out more than 2,927 fire missions.

These indicators refer to combat missions, not shots and expended shells.

On February 17, Czech President Petr Pavel announced that 800,000 shells could be sent to Ukraine, namely about 500,000 shells of 155 mm caliber and another 300,000 rounds of 122 mm caliber. They were all found in third countries.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister of the Czech Republic Petr Fiala announced that in the coming days Ukraine will receive the first artillery shells purchased within the framework of the Czech initiative.

On Wednesday, it was reported that by the end of 2024, the European allies plan to transfer to Ukraine 500,000 artillery shells purchased under the Czech initiative.