US is running out of resources to supply weapons to Ukraine, says report

United States Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin has acknowledged that the US and Western allies are having trouble supplying weapons to Ukraine at the pace it needs them.

Ukraine is consuming huge amounts of armaments to fend off Russia's invasion. According to reports by Fox News, US stockpiles of high-end munitions have been running low ever since the Russia-Ukraine war began. 

It has been eight months since the war began and now the US is reportedly at the end of its capacity to provide high-end munitions. In other words, the US is running low on weapons that it can supply to Ukraine. These include weapons such as HIMAR rocket launchers, Javelin anti-tank missiles, anti-aircraft Stingers and M-777 Howitzers, which have helped Ukraine significantly on the battlefield. 

US Defence Minister says that US will continue to supply Ukraine

During a press conference on Wednesday, when the US Defence Secretary was asked if the US and other western nations are worried that they are running low on the domestic stockpile of high-end munitions and if that will impact their ability to provide Ukraine with weapons it is demanding, Austin replied, "Well, it certainly is not lack of will." 

"We will produce and deliver these highly effective capabilities over the course of the coming months — and in some cases years — even as we continue to meet Ukraine’s most pressing self-defence requirements in real-time," he said. Defence Minister of western nations recently held a meeting to discuss how to provide Ukraine with the munitions it needs to defend itself. 

Mark Cancian, who worked for several years on DOD's procurement issues for the Office of Management and Budget, told Fox News that based on industrial capacity, inventory levels and information from the Biden administration, the US now has only a limited number of M-777 Howitzers, Javelins, Stingers and HIMARS. "There are some areas where we’re basically at the bottom of the barrel," Mark Cancian said. 

"It confirmed what I believe, that we will continue to support Ukraine, but we’re going to have to do it in different ways, like providing substitutes, or we might have to buy stuff from other people, or it will take longer," he added. Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been urging western nations to provide Ukraine with more high-end munitions.