Russia’s offensive against Kyiv in early 2022 was widely credited to Ukraine’s diverse arsenal of anti-tank missiles, but it was Ukrainian artillery that did most to frustrate the Russian advance, according to a report by the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), Business Insider reported in December 2022.
Beyond the Javelin
Ukraine’s anti-tank weapons included the Ukrainian-designed Stugna-P, laser-guided munitions fired from Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 drones, US-made Javelins and British-Swedish NLAWs. While these drew much public attention, the RUSI report credited the halt of the Russian drive on Kyiv to massed fire from two Ukrainian artillery brigades.
The report
The report, “Preliminary Lessons in Conventional Warfighting from Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine: February–July 2022,” was published on November 30 by Mykhaylo Zabrodskyi, Jack Watling, Oleksandr Danylyuk and Nick Reynolds, drawing on data from Ukraine’s General Staff.
At the start of the war, Russia had roughly a two-to-one advantage in barrel artillery, 2,433 guns to Ukraine’s 1,176, and in multiple-launch rocket systems. Ukraine maintained rough parity in fire for about six weeks before running low on ammunition, and by June Russia had about a ten-to-one advantage in volume of fire, the authors said.
Lessons for NATO
The report concluded that large stockpiles of munitions and surge production capacity are essential, warning that no NATO country except the United States currently has enough for large-scale war.
Sources
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