US Military Officials Say Russia Uses 40-Year-Old Old Ammunition at Risk of Failure, Out of Stock?

Ukrainian officials evacuated Russian missiles. (Wikimedia Commons/State Emergency Service of Ukraine)

JAKARTA - Russia is turning to decades-old munitions with a high failure rate as it 'burns' its stockpile for its nearly 10-month invasion of Ukraine, a senior US military official said Monday.

"They have taken from the (Russia's) stockpile old ammunition, which shows they are willing to use older ammunition, some of which were originally produced more than 40 years ago," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The United States accuses Russia of turning to Iran and North Korea for more weapons as it depletes its regular ammunition supply.

Senior US military officials have assessed that Russia will exhaust its stockpile of fully usable ammunition by early 2023, if it does not find foreign suppliers and use older stockpiles.

"We assess that at this rate of fire the Russians are using their artillery and rocket ammunition, in terms of what we call fully usable artillery and rocket ammunition. They may be able to do so until early 2023," the official explained.

Using older ammunition stocks carries risks, the official said.

"In other words, you load ammunition and cross your fingers and hope it will fire or when it lands it will explode," the official said.

Meanwhile, Iran has transferred drones to Russia for use in Ukraine, US and Ukrainian officials say. Moscow is also seeking to procure hundreds of ballistic missiles from Iran and offer Tehran unprecedented levels of military and technical support in return, British envoy to the United Nations Barbara Woodward said Friday.

Woodward also said the UK "almost believes Russia is looking to source weapons from North Korea (and) other heavily sanctioned countries, as their own stockpiles are dwindling."

Separately, Iran last month acknowledged supplying Moscow with drones, but said they were sent before the war in Ukraine.

However, Russia has denied its troops used Iranian drones to attack Ukraine, and denied North Korea supplied the weapons.