“The bottom of the barrel is now visible,” chair of the NATO Military Committee Rob Bauer said, referring to the West’s ammunition stockpile during a discussion at the Warsaw Security Forum.

Meanwhile, Minister of State for the armed forces of the United Kingdom James Heappy spoke at the same panel and said that even though stockpiles may be thin, aid for Kyiv must continue and Western countries need to up their capacity to produce more ammunition.

“We have to keep Ukraine in the fight tonight and tomorrow and the day after and the day after,” Heappey said. That means, “continuing to give, day in and day out, and rebuilding our own stockpiles,” he added.

Analysts are warning that the “US arsenal of democracy” needs to start working overtime or Ukraine’s war effort may be in trouble.

Essentially, analysts and officials alike are warning NATO members to up their ammunition production as the supply is not meeting the desperate demand. 

US military aid to Ukraine has amounted to a staggering $46.6 billion from the war’s start through July 31, according to the Council on Foreign Relations. NATO allies have contributed billions more.

This relates to a looming debate within NATO members regarding the defence spending quota. Currently, all members are obliged to spend at least 2% of their GDP on defence, however, not everyone in the alliance is doing that.

This issue has caused tension between European countries and the US with the latter country contributing a significant amount of its GDP to defence, while some states within Europe, like Germany, haven’t even reached the quota.

Are you concerned that this will hinder Ukraine’s effort at pushing Russia out of its territory?