Vladimir Putin scrambles to boost Russian arms production for Ukraine war
- Faced with delays and mounting losses, the leader urged his government to cut red tape and crank out weapons and supplies
- Local media reports say newly mobilised troops are not being given basic equipment such as medical kits and flak jackets
Russian President Vladimir Putin, facing military production delays and mounting losses, urged his government to cut through bureaucracy to crank out enough weapons and supplies to feed the war in Ukraine, where a Western-armed Ukrainian counteroffensive has set back Russia’s forces.
The Russian military’s shortfalls in the eight-month war have been so pronounced that Putin had to create a structure to try to address them. On Tuesday, he chaired a new committee designed to accelerate the production and delivery of weapons and supplies for Russian troops, stressing the need to “gain higher tempo in all areas”.
Russian news reports have acknowledged that many of those called up under a mobilisation of 300,000 reservists Putin ordered have not been provided with basic equipment such as medical kits and flak jackets, and had to find their own.
Other reports have suggested that Russian troops are increasingly forced to use old and sometimes unreliable equipment and that some of the newly mobilised troops are rushed to the war front with little training.
Last week, Putin tried to show all is well by visiting a training site in Russia where he was shown well equipped soldiers.
To substitute for increasingly scarce Russian-made long-range precision weapons, Britain’s Ministry of Defence said Russia was likely to use a large number of drones to try to penetrate Ukrainian air defences. Russia’s “artillery ammunition is running low”, the British report said on Tuesday.