Anastasia Pechenyuk20:15, 07/09/232 minutes.The government started with the production of artillery shells and mortars, as they play a key role in the war.

In June, Ukraine produced more mortar and artillery shells  than in the entire past year. 

This was stated by the Minister for Strategic Industries Alexander Kamyshin in an interview with Bloomberg.

“I would not say that we are so great that we were able to increase the production of ammunition in three months. In 2022, we produced so little.

We must be ambitious, because we have no choice,” says Kamyshin.The minister emphasizes that they started with the production of artillery shells and mortars, as they play a key role in the war, which he calls “World War II with drones.

In the long term, Kamyshin aims to make Ukraine a leading arms producer. Today, the domestic production of ammunition and weapons is increasing from a low level: Ukrainian Stugna-P anti-tank systems have begun to roll off the assembly lines, increasing the production of tanks and armored vehicles is the next priority (according to Kamyshin, this will take 3-6 months).

Artillery ammunition for Ukraine – latest news

This week, Washington announced the transfer of a new military aid package to Ukraine , which for the first time included cluster munitions requested by Kiev. 

The experts explained that the level of use of scarce artillery ammunition was probably higher than Ukraine’s partners expected, and the transfer of cluster shells partially solves the shortage problem.

On July 9, US President Joe Biden told reporters that he had sent cluster munitions to Ukraine because the United States had run out of ammunition. At the Pentagon, the decision to agree to the transfer of these weapons was explained by the slow pace of the Ukrainian counteroffensive , which, in particular, is due to the lack of ammunition.

(C)UNIAN 2023