Vladimir Putin's Troops Forced To 'Fight With Shovels' In Ukraine Due To Ongoing Ammunition Shortage
March 7 2023, Published 7:30 p.m. ET
Vladimir Putin’s already struggling troops are reportedly fighting in Ukraine using shovels due to an ongoing ammunition shortage, RadarOnline.com has learned.
In a stunning development to come more than one year after Russia first invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Putin’s forces are reportedly so poorly equipped that they have been ordered to use “firearms and shovels” to attack enemy strongholds.
According to the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defense, at least one squadron of Russian troops was documented attacking a rival battalion using shovels just last week.
"In late February 2023, Russian mobilized reservists described being ordered to assault a Ukrainian concrete strong point armed with only ‘firearms and shovels,’” the Ministry of Defense reported on Sunday.
"The ‘shovels’ are likely entrenching tools being employed for hand-to-hand combat,” the report continued. "The lethality of the standard-issue MPL-50 entrenching tool is particularly mythologized in Russia.”
“Little changed since it was designed in 1869, its continued use as a weapon highlights the brutal and low-tech fighting which has come to characterize much of the war."
Even more stunning are additional reports that indicate Putin’s soldiers are not “prepared for action” – particularly because of Russia’s allegedly incompetent commanders.
"One of the reservists described being ‘neither physically nor psychologically’ prepared for the action," the UK’s Ministry of Defense also reported. "Recent evidence suggests an increase in close combat in Ukraine.”
"This is probably a result of the Russian command continuing to insist on offensive action largely consisting of dismounted infantry,” they continued, “with less support from artillery fire because Russia is short of munitions."
As RadarOnline.com previously reported, the revelation that Putin’s troops are using shovels to fight in Ukraine comes just days after the Russian leader’s mercenary chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin, pleaded with the Kremlin to immediately deliver much-needed ammunition to the forces on the frontline.
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"These are the guys who died yesterday because of so-called ‘shell shortages’," Prigozhin said on Monday via a four-minute video. "There are five times more of them than there should have been."
Meanwhile, much of the ammunition successfully delivered to the Russian frontline forces has reportedly been deemed unusable due to the shells being too “rusty” and “disintegrated.”
"Russia's ammunition shortage in eastern Ukraine is reportedly so severe that its troops there have reportedly been issued with completely unusable munitions,” one Russian military source recently revealed, “including shells which are so rusty they have simply disintegrated."
