- Ukrainian strikes have forced Russia to reduce its ammo usage, Oleksandr Syrskyi said.
- The Ukrainian commander in chief said Russian shell usage has “practically halved” for months.
- Ukraine has been hitting ammo depots, oil facilities, and factories deep inside Russia for months.
Ukraine’s military commander in chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said Russia has cut down its artillery ammo usage in recent months due to Ukrainian strikes on the Kremlin’s production facilities.
“For several months now, the artillery ammunition expenditure rates in the Russian army have practically halved,” Syrskyi told Ukrainian broadcaster TSN in an interview released on Sunday.
“Here is a vivid example,” Syrskyi added. “If previously the figure reached up to 40,000 rounds per day, it is now significantly lower.”
Syrskyi attributed the reduction to Ukraine’s attacks on “industrial enterprises” that manufacture ammunition, missile parts, and other weaponry on Russian soil.
His comments come as Ukraine has increasingly reported that it’s been carrying out long-range strikes on Russian oil facilities, munitions factories, and ammunition depots across the border.
On Tuesday, Kyiv said it had launched its “largest attack” on Russian targets with missiles and drones, including hits on a fuel storage facility for bombers and a factory that produces rocket parts and artillery ammo.
Russia’s defense ministry said that it shot down nearly 150 drones that evening, providing an indicator of the operation’s scale.
Ukraine says its attacks on Russian facilities continue, with another reported strike on a gunpowder factory in the Tambov region on Thursday.
Its monthslong pattern of long-range attacks underscores Kyiv’s ability to break through air defenses and hit facilities deep inside Russian territory.
Some of its most notable strikes happened when Ukraine attacked three ammunition depots in Krasnodar and Tver in September, areas that are hundreds of miles behind the border.
The UK’s defense ministry said at the time that at least one of these depots saw the loss of 30,000 tons of ammunition, saying that the trio of strikes resulted in the largest loss of Russian and North Korean ammunition up to that point in the war.
North Korea has been supplying artillery systems and millions of shells to Russia since early 2024.
Any strain on Russia’s ammo production and reserves would likely be significant for the war because analysts say it’s becoming increasingly clear that the fate of the battlefield hinges on the quantity of weapons and manpower available to either side.
To meet the war’s demands, Russia’s defense sector has swelled to staggering levels when considering its total spending. Its defense budget grew from $59 billion in 2022 to $109 billion in 2023. The Kremlin is planning to spend about 13.5 trillion rubles, or about $131 billion now, on defense in 2025.
That’s nearly a third of its entire federal budget and is up from 10.8 trillion rubles in 2024.
Russia’s defense ministry did not respond to a request for comment sent outside regular business hours by Business Insider.
