Ukraine Scales Back Operations Due To Ammo Shortage As Troops Complain Of "Suicide Mission"
A top Ukrainian commander has admitted in fresh statements that the national military's ammunition supplies are running so low that leaders are forced to reassess priorities and operations.
Ukrainian Brigadier General Oleksandr Tarnavskyi said Monday the army is "replanning" its deployments due to artillery shell shortages which persist "across the entire front line" calling the the shortage a "very big problem."
"There’s a problem with ammunition, especially post-Soviet (shells)—that’s 122mm, 152mm. And today these problems exist across the entire front line," Tarnavskyi detailed. "The volumes that we have today are not sufficient for us today, given our needs."
"So, we’re redistributing it. We’re replanning tasks that we had set for ourselves and making them smaller, because we need to provide for them," he added at a moment the Ukrainians have struggled to make any gains whatsoever. He further admitted this is forcing his troops to have to scale back offensive operations.
The Biden administration has at the same time said it has one funding package left to announce for Ukraine, as authorized funding will run dry Dec. 30.
The negative headlines for Kiev have continued coming in, with a recent New York Times article describing that Ukrainian Marines are on a "suicide mission" in the country's south as they cross the Dnipro River in an attempt to liberate territory from the Russians:
There was a faint tremor in the marine’s voice as he recounted the murderous fighting on the east bank of the Dnipro River, where he was wounded recently.
“We were sitting in the water at night and we were shelled by everything,” the marine, Maksym, said. “My comrades were dying in front of my eyes.”
For two months, Ukraine’s Marine Corps has been spearheading an assault across the Dnipro River in the southern region of Kherson to recapture territory from Russian troops. The operation is Ukraine’s latest attempt in its flagging counteroffensive to breach Russian defenses in the south and turn the tide of the war.
Soldiers and marines who have taken part in the river crossings described the offensive as brutalizing and futile, as waves of Ukrainian troops have been struck down on the river banks or in the water, even before they reach the other side.
"It’s not even a fight for survival. It’s a suicide mission," one soldier characterized. "I did not see anything like this in Bakhmut or Soledar. It’s so wasteful."
There has of late been significant murmurings and signals that top government and military officials are angry at President Zelensky's refusal to so much as entertain the idea of peace negotiations with Moscow. Many see the reality of the battlefield situation as headed that way regardless, and complain about the wasted lives.
Too many supporters of Ukraine’s defense have engaged in ad hominem and trying to marginalize reasonable skeptics. It would have been better to engage with skeptics seriously, trying to address their reasonable concerns.
— Elbridge Colby (@ElbridgeColby) December 19, 2023
NAFO has hurt Ukraine and NATO more than helped them. https://t.co/maOY4HB6sw
On Tuesday Russian Defense Minister issued a rare statement seeking to estimate Ukraine's total losses since the start of the war. He offered the grim figure of a death toll approaching 400,000 Ukrainian troops killed.
While impossible to verify, Shoigu said that "since the start of the special operation, the Ukrainian armed forces’ casualties have exceeded 383,000 service members, killed and wounded, 14,000 tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers, 553 warplanes and 259 helicopters, 8,500 artillery pieces, and multiple launch rocket systems."