War in Ukraine, live: the bridge linking Crimea to Russia in flames

US ammunition for Ukraine reaching its limits The US military will soon no longer be able to provide Ukraine with the state-of-the-art equipment it has given it so far, as its reserves are reaching their limits, particularly in terms of ammunition, according to US officials and experts. US stocks of some equipment are “reaching minimum levels necessary for planning and training”, and replenishing stocks to pre-Russian invasion of Ukraine levels could take “several years”, according to Mark Cancian, from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Older equipment is available and “they will represent an increasingly important part of the transfers” in the future, added in a recent note this former colonel of the Marine Corps who was responsible for the Pentagon’s arms purchases from 2008 to 2015. The United States is by far the largest arms donor to Ukraine since the invasion of the country by Russia on February 24, with more than 16.8 billion in military assistance to kyiv. “We are learning lessons” on the ammunition needs of the American army in a conflict between great powers, which are “far higher” than forecasts, acknowledged an American soldier on condition of anonymity. The American defense industry, which was forced to drastically reduce its production in the 1990s when the United States wanted to reap the benefits of peace after the collapse of the USSR, has become ultra-concentrated to cushion the shock. The number of defense and aeronautical construction groups fell from 51 to 5 in a few years. Today, the US government must convince the industry to reopen assembly lines and restart production that had been abandoned, such as that of the Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, which ceased production in 2020.