NSA Sullivan-Ukraine Running Out Of Ammo w/o US Aid

Wires carrying comments from White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan claiming that Ukrainian forces are running out of ammunition without US aid. Samuel Ramani at the RUSI think tank: "In January 2024, Ukraine's Defence Minister Rustem Umerov confirmed that Russia had regained the shell advantage of 5-10 times that it had earlier in the war. Sullivan also highlighted frontline reports of rationing of ammunition for Ukraine".

• The comments on ammo come as Ukraine suffered a significant barrage of Russian missiles earlier on 15 Feb. Kyiv, as well as the cities of Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, and Lviv were hit. Reuters: "Ukrainian air defences shot down 13 out of 26 Russian-launched missiles, the air force said. This was a lower success rate than usual, reflecting the fact that the strength of air defences varies across regions."
• The ammo shortage refers in particular to the strategically important town of Avdiivka, which has been a site of intense fighting since the low-level conflict between Ukraine and Russian-backed forces in the Donbas broke out in 2014. While largely rubble now, the town is seen as a crucial target for Russia given that it has strong defensive capabilitiesand would cement Moscow's control over almost the entirety of the Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts that form the Donbas.