By AFP | 2024-07-03

KYIV -- After months of acute shortages, sources in Ukraine's armed forces say supplies of Western ammunition are increasing sharply.

The general staff of Ukraine's armed forces and members of three brigades serving in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine said in late June they had noticed a recent change compared to the start of the year.

"It's become better over the past month and it keeps getting better, at least for 155mm calibre artillery shells," a Ukrainian sergeant using the call sign "Luntik" -- a type of military nickname -- told AFP.

He said that in the first quarter of the year, ammunitions in his unit had been strictly rationed to "six shells every 24 hours" while the limit today was "up to 40 per day", the sergeant said.

In areas like the Kharkiv region, where Russia launched a land offensive last month, he said that "there is no limit".

In Kharkiv "the occupier has failed," President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday, while admitting the situation remained difficult.

"Our Ukrainian forces have stabilized the situation and stopped the offensive," he said.

An artillery serviceman in a different brigade in the same region said: "It has become a lot better."

According to a source at the general staff, the ratio between Ukrainian shelling and Russian shelling has moved in Kyiv's favour thanks to the arrival of new Western supplies.

"At the moment, the ratio of use of ammunition is one to three" in Russia's favour, compared to "one to seven" before.

"Our supplies have gone up and theirs have gone down," he said.

Prague seeks new donors

The Czech Republic on Thursday (June 27) called for more donors to join its initiative to supply ammunition to Ukraine.

Eighteen countries are involved in the Czech drive and Prague said Tuesday that the first lot of ammunition bought outside Europe under the initiative had reached Ukraine.

"If we want to meet the target of 800,000 units... we need more donors. We know about ammunition that is available," Defence Minister Jana Cernochova told reporters.

"We are ready to supply up to 500,000 large-calibre artillery shells this year, and we have this amount covered financially," she added.

Cernochova said 15 countries have provided funds for the purchases and the others are cooperating in other ways.

Tomas Kopecny, the Czech government's envoy for Ukraine reconstruction, said in May that Prague had raised some 1.7 billion euros ($1.8 billion) to buy the first 500,000 shells.

He named Canada, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Portugal among contributors.

Czech media have mentioned the Baltic states, Belgium, Finland, Iceland, Luxembourg, Norway and Slovenia among countries willing to join the drive.