For months on end, the mainstream media kept peddling the narrative that, because of the sanctions, not only the Russian economy was doomed to fail, they were also running out of ammo, missiles and all kinds of military equipment.
Unsurprisingly, it was not true.
Daily, news coming from the frontlines showed how the Russian Federation forces were outgunning the Ukrainians in every particular, implementing their ‘attrition warfare’ to incapacitate the enemy forces by slowly destroying both equipment and troops.
Now, the cat is out of the box, and it has been made public that, as a result of the push to circumvent the sanctions, they are now producing more ammunition than the United States and Europe together.
Russian military industrial complex is vastly overproducing all the west in terms of production of weapons, and it is estimated that the Russian ammunition production is seven times greater than that of the West.
The New York Times reported:
“Russia has managed to overcome sanctions and export controls imposed by the West to expand its missile production beyond prewar levels, according to U.S., European and Ukrainian officials, leaving Ukraine especially vulnerable to intensified attacks in the coming months.”
While sanctions did slow Russian production of missiles and other weapons for some six months, Russia rebuilt the trade in critical components by routing them through countries like Armenia and Turkey.
“Russia’s re-energized military production is especially worrisome because Moscow has used artillery to pound Ukrainian soldiers on the front lines, and its missiles to attack the electric grid and other critical infrastructure, and to terrorize civilians in cities. Officials fear that increased missile stocks could mean an especially dark and cold winter for Ukrainian citizens.
[…] Today, Russian officials have remade their economy to focus on defense production. With revenue from high energy prices, Russia’s security services and ministry of defense have been able to smuggle in the microelectronics and other Western materials required for cruise missiles and other precision guided weaponry. As a result, military production has not only recovered but surged.”
Western officials estimate Russia is on track to manufacture two million artillery shells a year – and do it cheaply, too: a Western country spends $5,000 to $6,000 to make an artillery round, whereas it costs Russia about $600 to produce a comparable shell.
They significantly ramp up production, crushing the unrealistic expectation that Moscow would not react to the American curbs.
“’Because the controls were having a real impact, the Russian government didn’t just throw up their hands and say, ‘You got us, we give up’,’ said Matthew S. Axelrod, the Commerce Department’s assistance secretary for export enforcement. ‘They got more and more creative with their evasion attempts. And we have been really aggressively working a number of different ways to clamp down’.”
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