UK’s Defence Ministry: Russia unlikely to increase artillery munitions for large-scale offensive operations

Russia has augmented its force in Ukraine with tens of thousands of reservists since October.

Despite the easing of its immediate personnel shortages, a shortage of munitions highly likely remains the key limiting factor on Russian offensive operations, Caliber.Az reports citing latest Defence Intelligence Update of UK’s Defence Ministry.

Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 24 December 2022

Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/pCnQtNmhAj

🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/z4gjnDuyON

— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) December 24, 2022

Russia has likely limited its long-range missile strikes against Ukrainian infrastructure to around once a week due to the limited availability of cruise missiles. Similarly, Russia is unlikely to have increased its stockpile of artillery munitions enough to enable large-scale offensive operations.

A vulnerability of Russia’s current operational design is that even just sustaining defensive operations along its lengthy front line requires a significant daily expenditure of shells and rockets.