WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th December, 2022) Russia could maintain its present rate of rocket and artillery fire on Ukraine into early 2023 despite dwindling ammunition stocks, a senior US military official said on Monday.
"We assess that at the rate of fire that Russia has been using its artillery and rocket ammunition, in terms of what we would call fully serviceable artillery and rocket ammunition, they could probably do that until early 2023. Their stocks of - again, fully serviceable ammunition, this would be new ammunition - is rapidly dwindling," the senior military official said.
Russia is likely being forced to use "degraded" ammunition as stocks of newer equipment are used, the senior military official said.
The United States believes that Russia will struggle to replenish its reserve of artillery and rocket ammunition through foreign suppliers, increased domestic production and refurbishment, the official added.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told US President Joe Biden on Monday that Russia has destroyed approximately half of Ukraine's energy infrastructure in missile strikes.
Russia began a series of strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure starting October 10, two days after an attack on the Crimean Bridge. The strikes have targeted energy infrastructure, the defense industry, military command and communications facilities across Ukraine.
