The defense minister says Russia needs to increase volume and speed of production as the US sends military aid to Ukraine.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has ordered an increase in weapons production for the war in Ukraine, his ministry said, just days after the United States approved a delayed multibillion-dollar military aid package for the Ukrainian government.
At a meeting on Wednesday with senior Russian military officials, Shoigu said the volume, quality and speed of weapons production needed to be increased and also ordered the repair of units on the front lines in eastern and southern Ukraine to improve their efficiency, according to the report Defense Department said on the Telegram messaging app.
“In order to maintain the required pace of the offensive … it is necessary to increase the volume and quality of weapons and military equipment, primarily weapons, delivered to the troops,” Shoigu said.
As Russian troops advance at key points along the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, some Russian officials have expressed concerns that U.S. support will escalate the conflict.
Ukrainian troops are running out of ammunition. Because they were outnumbered, they had to tactically withdraw from at least three villages in the east of the country.
Colonel-General Oleksandr Syrskii, the commander in chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, warned on Sunday that the country risks losing even more ground if its Western allies do not quickly deliver weapons.
Russia has captured about half a dozen villages in the Donetsk region while consolidating its positions on the battlefield in the Kharkiv region.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that the members of the military alliance had not kept their promises to Ukraine on time.
“Significant delays in support have had serious consequences on the battlefield,” Stoltenberg said Monday at a news conference in Kiev with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
On April 24, US President Joe Biden signed more than $61 billion in military aid to Ukraine, including a range of artillery weapons, missile systems, anti-tank ammunition and ammunition.
Zelensky said vital U.S. weapons were beginning to arrive in Ukraine in small quantities but that deliveries needed to happen faster given advancing Russian forces.
The Russian military attacked the command headquarters of the southern grouping of the Ukrainian army, which is stationed in the port of Odessa, the Defense Ministry said on Wednesday, but gave no details.
While Ukrainian prosecutors said residential buildings and civilian infrastructure in Odessa were damaged in an overnight strike, the southern military command said administrative and residential buildings as well as medical and educational facilities were hit.