The UK has confirmed it has supplied Ukraine with over 500,000 rounds of artillery ammunition worth more than £1.5 billion since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
In response to parliamentary questions from Ben Obese-Jecty MP (Conservative, Huntingdon), Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence Luke Pollard stated: “Since the beginning of the conflict, we have delivered over 500,000 rounds of artillery ammunition worth over £1.5 billion to Ukraine.”
Pollard added that the UK remains part of the multinational artillery capability coalition, supporting immediate operational needs and Ukraine’s ambition for a NATO-interoperable future force.
However, citing national security reasons, he declined to give a breakdown of which British units had their allocated or existing ammunition stocks reduced to support the donation efforts.
“We are steadfast in our commitment to support Ukraine for as long as it takes,” said Pollard, highlighting that the UK plans to deliver more military assistance than ever before in 2025, with a £4.5 billion boost announced earlier this year.
Separately, the government clarified that the £450 million funding package announced on 11 April 2025 during the Ukraine Defence Contact Group meeting is distinct from Coalition of the Willing initiatives. Of that package, “£350 million is being provided by the UK with further funding being provided by Norway via the UK-led International Fund for Ukraine,” Pollard confirmed.
When asked about the types of vehicles gifted to Ukraine, Pollard declined to provide details, stating: “We will not provide further details of vehicle or equipment due to security classification.”
It puts it in context just how in capable the Russians are of any kind of maneuverer warfare when we consider the entire expenditure of artillery shells by the US army in the entire gulf war was just 60,000. Some times Russia has been firing that many in a day and gaining almost no ground.
It’s frankly embarrassing for any modern military force to be this bad.
There are very good reason whey the west doesn’t make millions of artillery shells every year and as we can see by the constant accidents and explosions in Russia there is also good reason not to have millions of shells sitting around.
Probably no national security reason not to say that all units that had AS-90 also shipped along with the guns their 155mm shells apart from the few that have Archers.
It seems that UK politicians are OK with currently having a primarily 105mm based artillery force. Seemingly believing that the chances of UK artillery troops coming face to face with Russian similar are actually remote.
Preferring to spend the limited funds available to help Ukraine on flying and floating drones. As per the Su-30 shot down by a seaborne R-73 missile a couple of days ago.
Get that production up higher. There needs to be more for Ukraine and more for the U.K.
Ukraine needs as many as possible and no matter the outcome of the war a lot more shells will be needed. Enough to deter Russia from invading anywhere else.