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The United States has provided Ukraine with so much weaponry to fight Russians that Pentagon stockpiles for some munitions are “uncomfortably low,” according to US military officials.
The officials told The Wall Street Journal in a report published on Monday that some officials are particularly concerned about lower levels of 155mm ammunition, which can be fired from US-made M777 Howitzers.
An unnamed military official said that the level of 155mm ammunition in US stockpiles hasn’t reached critical levels, but it’s “uncomfortably low” and “is not at the level we would like to go into combat.”
The US military reportedly used a howitzer just last week in aggression in Syria against resistance fighters, according to the Journal.
A senior US military official however told reporters that depleted stockpiles of 155mm ammunition were not a direct result of US support for Ukraine.
“We’re able to provide what we have provided and still maintain our readiness as a military force,” the official said, according to Voice of America reporter Jeff Seldin.
The howitzer guns were part of an $800 million weapons package announced by the administration of US President Joe Biden back in April that also includes armored personnel carriers, helicopters, and tens of thousands of artillery shells.
Howitzers are towed artillery weapons that can strike targets miles away. The US has so far committed to sending 126 M777 Howitzers to Ukraine and up to 806,000 155mm artillery rounds for the weapons, according to the Pentagon.
Joe Biden announced Wednesday that he is sending almost $3 billion in new military aid to Ukraine as Russia’s military operation there has gone on for more than six months.
“The United States of America is committed to supporting the people of Ukraine as they continue the fight to defend their sovereignty,” he said.
Biden’s undersecretary for policy at the Pentagon, Colin Kahl, said last week, “We have provided them with hundreds and hundreds of these precision-guided systems (supplied Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (GMLRS) rather than long-range missiles, and the Ukrainians have been using them to extraordinary effect on the battlefield.”
The US has given billions of dollars worth of weapons to Ukraine since Russian President Vladimir Putin declared a “special military operation” in Ukraine with the aim of “demilitarizing” and “denazify” the country.
Since the beginning of August, the Pentagon has announced two military aid packages worth $550 million and $1 billion.
Putin has said that the US is prolonging the war in Ukraine as part of what he called Washington’s efforts to maintain its global hegemony.
