Ben Wallace admits West needs to ‘ramp up’ production of ammunition for Ukraine

The Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has admitted that Western allies need to "ramp up" production of ammunition to support Ukraine as it faces increasingly intense assault by Russia's forces.

Moscow has been bombarding the frontlines in the east Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk. The two areas make up what is known as the Donbas, Ukraine’s industrial heartland, which Russia is keen to control. Ukraine says that the situation is "difficult".

Asked on Sky News if the UK needed to “ramp up production”, Mr Wallace said: “You’re right about needing to ramp up production. The invasion of Ukraine caught most of the Nato members out insofar as our ammunition stocks over the decades had been hollowed out.

“Ukraine uses huge amounts of ammunition to defend itself... because the Russian or the Soviet way of fighting is very ammunition heavy.”

Mr Wallace said that the UK is training Ukrainian soldiers to fight in a more "Western way" and use less ammunition than the traditional Soviet way of fighting.

"Ukraine uses huge amounts of ammunition to defend itself, partly that's why we're training them to fight in a Western way," Wallace told Times Radio.

Britain along with other Western allies has been training Ukrainian soldiers and providing weapons and ammunition to support Kyiv in its battle with Russia.

Mr Wallace said Britain had been buying and trading ammunition "that is Soviet" in standard while also helping the Ukrainian military convert to unlock "access to our ammunition stocks".

"At the same time we're training to make sure it's used in a way that's very productive and accurate," he said.

"The Russian or the Soviet way of fighting is very ammunition heavy, massive artillery barrages, and that's never how we have organised ourselves to fight in Nato," he said.

The head of Nato, Jens Stoltenberg, said that Nato countries are increasing the production of 155 mm artillery rounds, one of the key rounds used by Ukrainian forces, and needed to ramp up that production even further to help Ukraine against Russia.

"Artillery shells 155 are increasing," he said. "So yes, things are happening but we need to continue, we need to step up even more. This is now becoming a grinding war of attrition and a war of attrition is a war of logistics".