On the Ukrainian fronts, the sound of the guns of the Kyiv army shelling Russian positions is so constant that it seems like the heartbeat of a war that has been going on for more than twenty months. Without this fire obstacle, Ukrainian troops would not be able to hold their positions or launch a counteroffensive to retake the territories captured by Russia, La Razon reports, citing Rador Radio Romania.

However, is a very high rate of fire sustainable? How long? Is NATO running out of weapons and ammunition, jeopardizing its own security in the face of the future and, according to various experts, real threat from the Kremlin in other parts of the European continent?

According to the chairman of the NATO Military Committee, Admiral Rob Bauer, the reserves of the organization, whose purpose is to protect member states, are in a critical state. Now you can see the bottom of the barrel,” he said on Sunday during a debate at the Warsaw Security Forum, referring to the lack of European arsenal.

In addition, a British military source said this week that “Britain has run out of weapons it can safely transfer to Ukraine,” The Telegraph reported. To this should be added the political situation in the Congress of the United States, where the previous budget did not include the much-needed package of military aid to Kyiv, which has been postponed for now.

Without their shells, the Ukrainian front could collapse. In the brutal war of attrition raging in the East and South, where the bloodiest battles are fought, artillery is the main weapon of war on both sides. In this sense, Ukraine’s needs continue to grow, and they remind me of the bombing hell of World War II.

Ukrainian troops release thousands of projectiles per day

The Pentagon says forces led by President Volodymyr Zelensky are firing between 2,000 and 3,000 rounds a day, according to a July report that also said the United States had already delivered more than 2 million rounds. At this rate, if the war continues to drag on, things will not be very good for the Ukrainian troops.

According to Pentagon spokesman Michael McCord: “Failure to guarantee acquisitions and supplies could undermine critical operations to regain territory or defend against future Russian offensives. Without additional funding, we would now have to delay or cut aid to meet Ukraine’s urgent needs, including critical and very urgent air defense and munitions needs,” he wrote in a letter to Congress last Friday.

In August, NATO figures showed that the EU and Norway sent at least 223,800 artillery shells between February and May. That figure is about a quarter of the $1.1 billion required.

“I don’t know where we’re going to get the shells,” Morten Brandzag, CEO of Norway’s Nammo, which produces about 25 percent of Europe’s ammunition, told The New York Times in September. At the moment, he noted, “the power of the industry is not there. It’s not that it’s impossible, but I don’t know how it can be done.” For this reason, Bauer insisted in Warsaw that “governments and defense manufacturers must increase production at a much faster rate.”

Likewise, the head of the Military Committee assured that this is due to “decades of underinvestment”, so when NATO started supporting Ukraine, “we gave them weapons systems, which is fantastic, and ammunition, but not with full stocks. We need large volumes,” he noted and was not shy about blaming “liberal economies that are good for many things, but not for feeding the Armed Forces when there is a war.”

Europe needs to build its defense industry

For his part, British Defense Secretary James Hippie asked NATO allies to spend at least “2 percent of their gross domestic product on defense, as they have pledged to do,” as he told the forum.

“If now is not the time, when will it be?” For Hippy, the current model, which he called “just in time” or, in other words, makeshift, “definitely doesn’t work when it comes to being ready for tomorrow’s fight. We must keep Ukraine in the fight tonight, and tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow, and the day after.

We must continue to give back, day by day, and rebuild our own reserves,” if we are to stop Russian President Vladimir Putin.

At the moment, various NATO countries and the EU have already drawn up plans to agree joint contracts with arms manufacturers, “because now we are digging into our pockets”, according to Swedish Defense Minister Paul Jonsson, so he believed that it was “vital that Europe created its defense industrial base.” In addition, he assured that “in the long term, I consider it important that Ukrainians can buy European material.”

The first step in reducing the future shortage of weapons has already been taken, but it is far from sufficient for Ukraine’s needs. On Friday, a large arms forum was held in Kyiv, which brought together more than 250 companies from 30 countries.

There, Zelenskyi announced the creation of a “defense industry alliance” that he hopes will stop what is perhaps the biggest threat to his military’s counteroffensive. At the same meeting, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba, euphorically announced a “new era” for his industry.

However, the question remains open: will the shells make it? No one knows for sure. And this, against Russia, can force the fate of the war to hang on a thin thread.

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