The journey a 155mm shell manufactured in the US takes to get to the frontlines of #Ukraine’s war with Russia is roughly 5,000miles. I spoke to someone on every step of that journey and👇🏽here’s what I learned🧵

This thread was originally posted on: x.com/_aswesterman...

For more of my reporting over the years on #Ukraine, see my page: www.npr.org/people/16152...

TLDR; I boiled all of the reporting down into a 5 min interview on NPR’s MorningEdition: www.npr.org/2024/09/17/n...

I met Popov in Kyiv; he was on leave with his and so his wife and daughter joined him for the interview. He looked tired and worn, bags under his eyes and his stature a little slouched.

He told me: “Our first task is to save our people… without artillery we cannot do this.”

And 155mm shells, in particular, are important — the most-requested hardware by the Ukrainians since the full-scale invasion began because of their impact.

Col. Oleksandr Popov, the head of a Ukrainian artillery unit says it takes any 30-40 shells to bring down a target.

Oksana Ustinova is chairs Ukraine’s Commission on Arms Control. She says UA is not stupid enough to “shoot ourselves in the leg.”

“We understand that if there’s even one scandal that comes up and appears to be true, we’re done and we will not have that support coming anymore.”

Zavitnevych says weapons are inevitably lost during battle — ex. a 🚁 crashes and not all the weapons are destroyed on board.

BUT, he notes, there has not been ONE credible report of any US weapons being sold in the black market by Ukrainians or Russians.

In January 2024, the Pentagon released a report that said just that: www.npr.org/2024/01/12/1...

Oleksandr Zavitnevych is in charge of procuring weapons from abroad. He says any officials from #Ukraine’s allies can request a visit to see how the munitions are handled, stored and moved.

But what about reports that billions of $$ in US weapons have been LOST?

“We are very careful about using the ammunition, about storage and giving the ammunition to the units,” Sergey says. He also notes that his depot has been visited by US🇺🇸 representatives and they said “at some points, you even do a better job than the US.”

A commander of one of #Ukraine’s depots, call sign Sergey, saysthey count ALL the shells as they arrive and if there are any issues, there is a protocol to alert the Americans. He says they deal with up to 60 trucks a week, reaching taking about 40 mins to unload. 🚚

At each step, there are controls in place to ensure ammunition doesn’t get lost. Each shell can be tracked down to the serial number, counted and checked multiple times at each step. All info goes into software that both sides have access to, one is a NATO program called LOGFAS.

When #Ukraine’s military takes charge of the ammunition, they move it to one of their many weapons depots (locations not disclosed, ofc).

There it will sit until it is assigned out to a unit on the front to be used.

Seems simple? Not really. Here’s why:

Once the ammunition arrives in Europe, USEUCOMM takes over. A spokesman tells me they use a combination of rail, commercial and military trucks to navigate through Europe and to the border of #Ukraine. Much of the ammunition goes across the border with Poland.

From here I picked up the story:

US military is responsible for moving finished shells to their port of departure & transporting them to Europe. Maj Gen Daniel Tilley of USAF TRANSCOM says they transport munitions by land, air & sea — depends how fast they need to be delivered.

Let’s first start in Scranton Pa, where there is a factory that makes 155m shells to be sent to Ukraine. My colleague Mansee Khurana visited late last month to talk to people about how the war in UA is bringing money to their community: www.npr.org/2024/09/15/n...