US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on May 14 visited Ukraine’s capital Kiev to reassure allies and reaffirm his commitment to speed up aid amid Russia’s threat to the Kharkov line.

Two days later, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that `for the first time, no brigade complained that they had no artillery shells` since the outbreak of the conflict.

But in the Donbass region, one of the hottest fronts today, the situation of Ukrainian soldiers on the front line is not as declared by the leadership.

Battlefield reports show that Russian forces are maintaining a density of artillery fire 12 times greater than the Ukrainian army in this area.

Ukrainian artillery participated in battle on the Kupyansk front, Kharkov province, on May 5.

French newspaper Le Monde interviewed soldiers from five Ukrainian brigades deployed on the Donbass front.

`We have read the news, but we all have to look at the reality here. We have to rely on what is available,` said Maksym, a 28-year-old sergeant with the 59th Ukrainian Mechanized Infantry Brigade.

Maksym is in charge of training 15 recruits at a training ground near Pokrovsk, a key city about 20 km from the front line in Donetsk province.

`We are not short of bullets for infantry guns, but are short of everything else such as drones, jamming systems to fight drones, artillery shells, and missiles. Weapons supplies are daily.

The training ground was arranged under thick trees to avoid detection by Russian scouts.

`We are suffering heavy casualties due to lack of drones and artillery fire. Many motor vehicles were also destroyed by enemy first-person view (FPV) drones. We are in dire need of piezoelectric suppression equipment.`

A similar story took place in the forest near Bakhmut, where a tank company of the 23rd Ukrainian Mechanized Brigade was stationed.

`The lack of ammunition has caused combat performance to decline over the past several months. Fuel is also always in short supply, while the entire company of 10 tanks is only staffed with one drone jammer. It should be every two vehicles.`

Car leader Serhii admitted that they constantly had to hide because Russian forces completely controlled the sky.

A few minutes later, a hook-shaped white streak appeared in the sky, a sign that Russian fighter jets circled after dropping a series of guided bombs aimed at Ukrainian targets.

The Ukrainian army ran into a serious shortage of artillery ammunition this past winter, mainly due to delays in US military aid.

Many countries, including Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Canada, Poland, Denmark and Slovenia, have contributed money to the initiative led by the Czech Republic, which is expected to help Ukraine receive about 1.5

US officials also announced two military aid packages for Ukraine with a total value of nearly 1.5 billion USD, including artillery shells, since the 61 billion USD law was passed at the end of April.

However, these efforts still take a long time to implement, while the Ukrainian forces’ thirst for bullets on the front lines is getting worse.

Military situation of Russia – Ukraine.

Arthur, commander of the BM-21 Grad battery of the 59th Brigade near Pokrovsk, affirmed that Ukrainian multiple rocket launchers are currently unable to take advantage of firepower.

`I have never fired a series of 40 rockets in 18 months of deployment in Donbass. The most I fired was 5 shells, but that is a very rare occurrence. Most shelling missions only use one rocket to attack.

Arthur believes that the inability to carry out the mission is reducing the morale of Ukrainian units and that the situation on the front lines would be much different if they were given enough ammunition.

`The situation will be difficult to improve in the near future, because there is no supply of rockets for BM-21 rocket artillery. We must capture North Korea’s ammunition reserves,` Ukrainian soldiers said, referring to the accusations of