MOSCOW: Russia’s defence minister on Wednesday ordered a hike in weapons production and said deliveries needed to be faster for the war in Ukraine, a week after US President Joe Biden signed off on tens of billions of dollars of new military aid for Kyiv.
President Vladimir Putin’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine touched off the worst breakdown in relations between Russia and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, according to Russian and US diplomats.
Biden on April 24 signed a bill into law that provides $61 billion in additional aid to Ukraine, including an array of artillery, rocket systems, anti-tank munitions and ammunition.
Russia is gradually advancing at key points along the 1,000-km (620 mile) front line and stated that US arms will not prevent victory by Moscow, but some Russian officials are concerned that the US support will escalate the conflict.
At a meeting with the top military brass in charge of what Moscow calls the “special military operation” in Ukraine, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said the volume, quality and speed of arms production needed to be increased.
“To maintain the required pace of the offensive ..., it is necessary to increase the volume and quality of weapons and military equipment supplied to the troops, primarily weapons,” Shoigu said in footage released by the defence ministry.
Shoigu, who was shown inspecting drones and other weapons and giving his own thoughts on improvements, said industrial enterprises had been ordered to reduce production time while repair units at the front, in Ukraine’s east and south, and at the rear had been told to improve their efficiency.
The chief of the Russian general staff, General Valery Gerasimov, who is in charge of the military campaign in Ukraine, delivered a report to Shoigu on the current state of operations.
With both the West and Russia upping their stakes in the war with billions of dollars in further arms, the stage is set for a third year of the grinding artillery and drone battles that have typified the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War Two.