The Munich Security Conference is also known as the “Davos of defense”. Every year, politicians, security analysts, military leaders and campaigners gather at the five-star Bayerischer Hotel Hof in Germany’s third-largest city for several days of chatting, networking and giving lectures. Masu. As this year’s conference concluded on Sunday, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen played the role of ace. She announced that Denmark would donate all its artillery to Ukraine.
“I apologize to my friends, but there are still stocks of ammunition in Europe,” she told delegates. “This is not just a question of production, because we have weapons and ammunition, we also have defense means that we do not need to use at the moment, and we should deliver them to Ukraine.” We must do more. It doesn’t have to be. ”
Ms. Frederiksen’s announcement and her observations are timely. Last week, Ukrainian troops withdrew from the besieged city of Avdiivka in the eastern Donbas region, allowing Russia to claim major territorial gains for the first time in almost a year. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told a delegation in Munich that ammunition shortages were one of the reasons for the withdrawal.
Ukraine’s voracious appetite for shells has shocked Western military authorities. Recent operations by Western forces, particularly in Afghanistan and Iraq, have focused on counterinsurgency and security, but Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has turned the clock back to the era of the massive barrage of World War I. It dates back a century. Ukrainian military units fire 8,000 rounds a day, while their Russian rivals hit a record high of 60,000 shots a day last summer. Supply chains built on the premise of peace between nations are simply unable to keep up.
Last fall, Admiral Rob Bauer, the Dutch officer who chairs NATO’s military committee, admitted that ammunition stocks were desperately low. “We are seeing the bottom of the barrel,” he told a conference in Warsaw, adding that the government and defense industry needed to “accelerate production at a faster tempo.”