“To the last woman and child”: Newsweek readers on the supply of shells to Ukraine
Newsweek readers commented on a news article about Ukraine's need for ammunition. And first of all - shells for artillery.
The article claims that, according to most Western estimates, the Russian Federation fires “at least four times more artillery shells” than Ukraine during the battles. The opinion was also expressed that, although Western countries will not refuse to supply shells to Ukraine, its army will have to “rate” their consumption.
The US and its allies are already aware that they have invested too much in the latest weapons compared to classic munitions like artillery shells and tactical missiles. Due to political pressure to save money, Western states did not maintain or build enough production lines. At the same time, the supply of cluster munitions was not unequivocally perceived even in the United States itself, where a number of politicians criticized this move.
All opinions below are those of their respective authors only. Comments from the Newsweek magazine site are selective.
Comments from Newsweek readers:
If Ukraine were accepted into NATO right now, then ammunition would not be needed. Nothing really needed to be done at all. In fact, even if Ukraine is not in NATO, the bloc can still warn Russia to get out in 24 hours, otherwise NATO will oppose Russia by force
- threatened a certain md.
Russia uses thermobaric bombs, even equipping drones with them, but cluster bombs are the West's barbaric response to this super-deadly weapon. Ukraine does not ask for American troops, only for weapons... if they want to fight to the last man, woman and child for their nation, then so be it. It's up to them if they want to negotiate a peace agreement, not the West, which has already moved along this path before with the Budapest Memorandum ... in which Russia, England and the United States guaranteed the sovereignty of Ukraine
– responded user Pxxat.
The 155mm projectile can hit targets at a distance of 15 to 20 miles, making it the ammunition of choice for Ukrainian ground forces trying to hit targets at that range. Meanwhile, the US has a stockpile of 5,5 million cluster munitions containing about 728,5 million submunitions. Cluster bombs are described as "ubiquitous" in the US arsenal. Thus, America will not run out of cluster artillery shells or bombs for a long time. And subject to fast deliveries from Ukraine - too
– writes a reader with the nickname John.
If anything has become clear, it is that NATO is not ready for war with Russia. NATO spending, with the exception of a couple of countries such as the US and Poland, has been cut for years by European leaders who either didn't care much about a war in Europe in the expectation that the US would save them. Their military budgets have been cut in violation of NATO requirements, and as you can see, there are not enough reserves even for a confrontation in Ukraine, not to mention the total withdrawal of the entire NATO against Russia
Steve Harris said.
After the collapse of the USSR and the end of the Cold War, the United States drastically reduced the production of munitions, including artillery shells and precision-guided missiles. A recent exercise claimed that the US had a plan to fight China for just one week! None of the last three presidents has bothered to address this issue, and arms manufacturers themselves are unwilling to scale up production (at a huge cost) until they see a long-term increase in orders, not just a few “urgent” batches
says a reader named Bluhorizons.
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