Military expert Samus explains why Ukraine lacks artillery rounds

He shared the information on Espreso TV.

"The industry is not coping, that is, until 2022, basically the entire European defense industry was a business. Their armies definitely did not need millions of shells. Why would the French or German army need millions of shells if they weren't fighting? Their operations were of a completely different kind, they were air operations, precision-guided, and so on. Millions of conventional ammunition could simply be sold somewhere in the Middle East, Africa, or other regions, to Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates," the expert explains.

According to him, it was a business for the vast majority of European countries. Samus emphasized that they used to be able to produce 10 missiles a year, but now thousands are needed to cover Ukraine's needs.

"This is a challenge to the industrial base, to the personnel, where to get these engineers, trained personnel, where to get the equipment. Even Taiwan or Korea, I think, may not be able to fulfill the order for the required high-precision equipment as quickly as necessary. There are also problems with the basic raw materials needed to produce gunpowder - this is a well-known fact. So it's really no wonder that, for example, the Czech president said that the Czech Republic has found 800,000 different pieces of ammunition of both NATO and Soviet calibers. I've heard about discussions with South Korea and South Africa. If these countries indeed agree to supply us with such a quantity of shells, then the immediate concern becomes funding. We will need to secure several hundred million, or possibly even a billion euros, to fulfill these obligations," Samus said.

The director of the New Geopolitics Research Network added that these 800,000 rounds of ammunition will help the Ukrainian army greatly, as they will close the gap that has arisen due to problems in the European defense industry, while the American industry has been left without budget funding because they have their own problems.

• Earlier this week, the US media reported, citing administration officials in Washington, that the White House was working on providing Ukraine with new longer-range ATACMS ballistic missiles. But for this to happen, Congress must approve a new aid package.
• The US Presidential Administration has officially confirmed that it is considering the possibility of providing Ukraine with longer-range ATACAMS missiles than those previously delivered.