Russia is unable to replenish ammunition stocks, only China's help can change situation – Defense Express editor-in-chief Katkov

This was stated by Oleh Katkov, editor-in-chief of Defense Express, on the air of Espreso channel.

"In any case, there is a fairly long-term negative trend in the Russian Federation regarding ammunition. It cannot be changed, except in a situation where China will help Russia. This is extremely threatening, because we are talking about the entire military-industrial complex of China and its stockpiles for 2 million armed forces," he said.

Katkov added that China's weapons are quite similar in caliber to the Soviet ones.

"Even if Russia stays with its existing allies (DPRK and Iran) in terms of ammunition sources and military-industrial complex working at full capacity, it cannot replenish these expenditures. There are a lot of elements to the overall picture when the Ministry of Defense shows that 40-year-old shells for tanks are used, and this does not surprise anyone. There is a certain tendency that Russia cannot sustain a large barrage of fire as it is now. A year ago there were 40,000-60,000 shots per day, now it is many times less. It's a trend – the longer it goes on, the worse it will be for Russia," the expert summarized.