Russia produces 1.5m ‘non-smart’ ammo per month- Estonian intelligence

Russia may produce up to 1.5 million rounds of ammunition per month, in a sign it has managed to reorient its industrial capacities to sustain war efforts against Ukraine, Estonian defence intelligence chief Ants Kiviselg told RBC-Ukraine.

Before the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Russians nominally had 9,000 tanks and 36,000 armoured vehicles, Mr Kiviselg said, adding that they could probably in effect use one third of them.

"In addition, they have large stockpiles of ammunition. Today they can produce about 1.5 million rounds of ammunition per month," the Estonian defence official added.

He added that Moscow has now launched almost continuous production of shells at its plants.

"But this does not apply to ballistics, for example. These are so-called ‘non-smart’ shells. Of course, they cannot produce ballistics in such volumes," Mr Kiviselg said, without elaborating which artillery shells he was talking about.

"But the issue is also in the artillery systems themselves. They are trying to restore them, but this is a challenge for Russia."