Zelensky says that artillery shell deliveries to Ukraine decreased since the start of Israel-Hamas war
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday, November 16, that deliveries of key artillery shells to his country had dropped off after fighting erupted between Israel and Hamas last month. Israel, which receives US military support, has relentlessly pounded the Gaza Strip since Hamas fighters launched an unprecedented assault on southern Israel last month, Le Monde reports.
"Our deliveries have decreased," Zelensky told reporters, referring specifically to 155-millimeter shells that are widely used on the eastern and southern frontlines in Ukraine, saying "they really slowed down." "It's not like the US said: We don't give Ukraine any. No! It's just that everyone is fighting for [stockpiles] themselves," he told reporters. "This is life. I'm not saying that this is positive, but this is life, and we have to defend what's ours."
"Now the warehouses are empty or there is a legal minimum that a particular state cannot give you," Zelensky told reporters in Kyiv. "And this is not enough," he added. Zelensky however praised efforts in the United States to ramp up production. Neither Russia nor Ukraine has made any significant territorial gains for a year, and Kyiv's top army commander has said that fighting had ground to a stalemate.
