British howitzers fall silent in Ukraine because of ‘catastrophic’ shortage of shells
British artillery guns supplied to Ukraine are falling silent on the battlefield because of a lack of ammunition for them, front-line troops have told The Telegraph.
Ukrainian soldiers trained by Nato on L119 howitzers have been reduced to firing them less than once a day because of a “catastrophic” shortage of shells.
One front-line unit said they had ended up using a Second World War-era field gun instead, as it still had stocks of shells available.
The revelation comes after Nato’s most senior military official warned last week that the alliance was fast running out of artillery shells to give to Ukraine.
Rob Bauer, the Dutch admiral who chairs Nato’s Military Committee, told the Warsaw Security Forum that “the bottom of the barrel is now visible”.
The acuteness of the shortfall has been laid bare by troops from Ukraine’s 80th Air Assault Brigade, who received part of a batch of 36 L119 Howitzers supplied to Kyiv by Britain last year.
“Miron”, an artillery commander stationed near Bakhmut, told The Telegraph: “The British L119 is a nice gun, very comfortable to work with and accurate to fire. But we don’t have enough shells for it – last week, we fired only five shells all week.
“It is catastrophically limited. When we are in battle, we are having to weigh up very carefully whether we should use a shell or not.”
Miron and his comrades were sent to Germany for training on the L119 during the summer. The weapon should make them much more effective in punching through Russian lines.
But because of the shortage of Nato-issue 105mm shells, they have had to fall back on their existing Soviet-era howitzers instead. Among them is an ancient 85mm D-44, a gun used in the final clashes of the Second World War.
“It’s almost like a museum [piece], but we still use it, as at least we have more shells for it,” Miron said.
“This is a critical situation as this is an artillery war – not having enough shells costs our own soldiers’ lives.”
His comments highlight a long-standing complaint from Ukraine that it is being outgunned in terms of artillery power by Russia, which uses up to 20,000 artillery shells a day on the battlefield. A single Ukrainian field gun operator can easily use 100-plus shells in a day – if the supplies are available.
Increase production of artillery shells
Last Tuesday, Adml Bauer urged Western governments and defence manufacturers to increase production of shells to “a much higher tempo”.
He warned that many countries supplying artillery shells to Ukraine had already depleted more than half of their warehouse stocks.
Britain’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) said it had supplied more than 300,000 artillery rounds to Ukraine since the war began.
The UK’s biggest arms firm, BAE Systems, also plans to open an office in Ukraine to launch a joint weapons production partnership with local manufacturers.
A MoD spokesman said: “Tens of thousands of rounds of 105mm shells were gifted to Ukraine as part of the 300,000 shells we’ve already delivered.
“The UK will go further in the coming months in our priority support areas, including air defence and long-range strike capabilities, and training.”
However, the worry remains that with thousands of shells being fired on the battlefield every day, Kyiv is depleting stocks faster than its military backers can replenish them.
“We will be using bows and arrows next,” joked one of Miron’s comrades.
