Sergei Shoigu calls for more and better weapons for Russian forces after US resumes supplies to Ukraine

The Russian minister ordered the delivery of more weapons as quickly as possible for the war in Ukraine, the Ministry of Defense announced on Wednesday, quoted by Reuters, at a time when Moscow’s forces are on the offensive at the front.

Sergei Shoigu’s call was made during a meeting with the military command, after the head of the General Staff, Valeri Gerasimov, who is in charge of operations in Russia, presented a report to the Minister of Defense.

“In order to maintain the necessary pace of the offensive, it is necessary to increase the volume and quality of weapons and military equipment provided to the troops, first of all weapons,” said Șoigu, according to a statement quoted on the official Telegram page of the ministry.

Shoigu’s request comes a week after the US formally approved military aid to Ukraine, which will include artillery ammunition, new combat vehicles and long-range missiles.

While Kiev has so far blamed a lack of weapons, Russian forces have made almost daily tactical advances in recent weeks along the front line in southeastern Ukraine.

Russia captured about six villages in the Donetsk region, while consolidating its battlefield positions in the Kharkiv region.

Ukraine risks losing even more ground if the West does not deliver weapons quickly, Kiev’s supreme commander, General Oleksandr Sirski, warned on Sunday.

He announced the withdrawal of his troops from villages near the town of Avdiivka, an eastern Ukrainian stronghold captured earlier this year by Russia.

Russia currently controls just under a fifth of Ukrainian territory, most of it captured in the first months of the full-scale war it launched in February 2022.

Despite the advantage, Russia has a problem

However, several officials and experts quoted by the Financial Times noted that despite the obvious advantages, the Russian forces do not have the necessary weapons to launch a large-scale offensive either.

These numerical advantages at the front mask Moscow’s inability to convert firepower into significant success on the battlefield – which would only be possible with more advanced weaponry.

But Western sanctions have made it harder to get the components needed for drones, guided bombs and high-precision missiles, forcing Moscow to rely on lower-tech weapons it can more easily mass-produce.

Despite Moscow’s larger arsenal, its military “does not have a radical advantage over Ukraine in terms of artillery and ammunition,” said Ruslan Pukhov, head of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, a Moscow-based defense think tank. , quoted by the Financial Times.

Instead, the Kremlin deploys less sophisticated weaponry, such as highly destructive bombs and refurbished Soviet weaponry, while mobilizing troops using motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles.

The Ministry of Defense has admitted that it can only produce at most half of the 4 million 152mm and 1.6 million 122mm projectiles that Putin’s military estimates it needs to penetrate Ukrainian defenses.

And as Russia continues to fire more shells, it wears out its artillery barrels faster than it can produce new ones — forcing it to replace them with Soviet-era barrels.

Then, despite the increased firepower at the moment, Russia still cannot maintain the enormous rate of shells launched in the first months of the war.