Vladimir Putin’s army is running out of ammunition and the small progress it is making in Ukraine will soon become “unsustainable”, Western officials said on Monday. Russian forces bomb the industrial city of Severodonetsk as they try to seize control of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region. However, their combat efforts are believed to be hampered by a lack of equipment, including long-range precision missiles. Stockpiles come out of “deep storage” to cover the deficit. “[Putin] “It was planned for a very short war, a 30-day campaign,” officials said as the conflict entered its 117th day.
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“He was always on the back foot with a supply of ammunition on the front line.” Russian troops have said they would be welcome in Ukraine, but defense chiefs believe Putin’s army has lost between 15,000 and 20,000 troops during five months of intense fighting. Lack of ammunition, low morale and inadequately equipped combat units mean that Western officials “are increasingly vigilant that Russia’s tiny advances will become unsustainable.” They added that the Kremlin would like to maintain some of its stockpiles “in case they want to fight NATO”. Despite the lack of ammunition, they expect the war to continue for “a long time” without “any strategic compromise”. Both sides will want to “dig in and maintain the advantage they have already gained,” officials added. It comes as the British Department of Defense (MoD) says Putin’s air force is so “risk averse” that it performed poorly during the war, leaving its ground troops “exhausted” as they are being asked to do so much. They said the Russian air force’s shortcomings were a key factor in Moscow’s limited success in the five months since the invasion began. The foreign ministry said the Russian president had developed a fleet of “modern and capable fighter jets”, but that this was not in line with the “skills set” or “institutional culture” as achieved by some Western air forces. Mr Putin’s generals have been seeking to occupy Sheverodonetsk in the eastern province of Luhansk for weeks. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has predicted that Russia will escalate its attacks this week. “Obviously, this week we should expect an intensification of its hostile activities from Russia,” he said in a video overnight video on Sunday. “We are getting ready. We are ready.”
