The Ukrainska Pravda newspaper reported that the Commander of the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, General Valery Zaluzhny, has asked US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to provide additional aid to the country of 350-400 billion USD to complete the goal of pushing Russian forces back to the border before the current conflict broke out.
The proposals and operational plans to achieve this goal were shared by General Zaluzhny with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin when he visited Kiev in November.
Ukraine's demand for artillery shells exceeds the US's capabilities, despite seeking support from all allies.
Also in the meeting, General Zaluzhny proposed that the US provide Ukraine with 17 million artillery shells of various types, in addition to a budget of hundreds of billions of dollars.
"General Zaluzhny said that Ukraine would need 17 million artillery shells. Minister Austin was stunned by this proposal. And the US cannot gather such ammunition even if all its allies are mobilized," a senior official in the Ukrainian Defense Ministry , who spoke on condition of anonymity, revealed.
Ukrainska Pravda 's source added that General Zaluzhny complained to the US Secretary of Defense about the Ukrainian President's Office's frequent interference and obstruction of his work.
“The president knew about those conversations and that doesn’t build trust,” the official said.
The US Department of Defense and the Ukrainian military have not yet commented on this information.
Since the beginning of the conflict (February 2022), the US and its allies have delivered more than 2 million 155mm artillery shells to Ukraine. However, the number is not enough to match the rate of fire of Ukrainian artillery every day. Faced with a shortage of artillery shells, the Pentagon had to expand a series of artillery shell production lines not only to increase aid to Ukraine but also to replenish the ammunition previously transferred to the reserve.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan admitted in July that Washington's stockpile is short of 155mm artillery shells and it could take years to replenish the stockpile to acceptable levels.
The Pentagon has already spent $2.26 billion to help defense contractors increase production of 155mm artillery shells from 14,000 to 20,000 per month. That capacity is expected to soon reach 28,000 per month, with a goal of producing one million shells by fall 2025.
Tra Khanh (Source: Ukrainska Pravda)
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