Russia ‘Quickly Running Out’ of Weapons Putin Needs in Ukraine: General

Sasha Mordovets/Getty Images Above, a photo of Russian President Vladimir Putin observing a weapon at a manufacturing plant. A retired U.S. Army General on Friday claimed that Russia is "quickly running out" of the weapons it needs to fight to in Ukraine.

A prominent former U.S. general said that Moscow and Russian President Vladimir Putin are "quickly running out" of weapons in the ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

Mark Hertling is a retired U.S. Army lieutenant general who previously served as the commanding general of the Army's Europe branch. Since his retirement a decade ago, Hertling has become prolific as an analyst, appearing on various news programs to discuss military matters, becoming particularly outspoken in the last year amid Russia's invasion of its Eastern European neighbor.

On Friday, Hertling appeared on CNN where host Abby Phillip asked him about Russia's recent attempts to "shore up" partnerships with potential ally nations. The retired general said that Putin is likely quite keen to build up relations with the likes of Iran and China due to his army's dwindling supply of weapons and munitions in Ukraine.

"The truth of the matter is [that] Russia is attempting to gain partners with different countries, who have different types of ammunition that they can help supply this war," Hertling said. "And I think Mr. Putin is realizing that he's quickly running out of the kinds of munitions he needs to continue this fight."

The conversation with Hertling began with Phillip touching on recent reports that China would be bolstering its political cooperation with Russia. Despite this, Hertling said that it was unlikely that this relationship would progress to the point of China providing military aid to Russia, due in part to the latter's increasingly poor image on the world stage.

"Certainly, Mr. Putin is attempting to shore up his partnership with President Xi. But I think President Xi a long time ago realized this mission is making Russia and Mr. Putin a pariah on the world stage," Hertling said. "They have promised cooperation, political cooperation in the official statement. But as you saw, Mr. Putin was pressing it a little bit, saying, hey, we want military cooperation."

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He continued: "I'm sure there was an attempt to trade energy sources for some type of either ammunition or military equipment back from China. I'm not sure Mr. Putin is going to get that from the alpha male in this particular relationship. Mr. Putin is seen as the lesser of the two partners in this new China/Russia relationship."

Throughout the invasion of Ukraine, Iran has seemingly been Russia's most important ally, with Iranian drones being used extensively by the Russian military to carry out strikes on the war-torn country. On Friday, Ukraine's armed forces reported that 16 more Shahed-136 Iranian drones had been shot down the night before over the capital of Kyiv and other parts of the country.

"The Russians have certainly used vast amounts of firepower, and their use of the S-300, an air defense missile, to strike ground targets, and the turn to Iran for drones and discussions with Tehran on missiles, suggest that stocks are being drawn down fast in war that Moscow did not anticipate would be a long one," Rajan Menon, an expert on Russian military affairs with the Defense Priorities think-tank, told Newsweek in a statement. "Just how rapidly new production can be ramped up remains to be scene. One indication of the depth of Russia's problem will be whether it can maintain the frequency and intensity of its attacks on Ukraine energy infrastructure and other urban targets."

Hertling noted that, to an extent, the United States is limited in what it can do about ally nations transferring equipment to one another, though he added that additional sanctions could be imposed against Iran.

"But remember, we've got some dealings with Iran, too," Hertling said. "We're trying to get some things from them in terms of improved relationships. So it's going to be very challenging to do that."

Updated 12/31/2022, 6:00 P.M. ET: This article was updated with a statement from an expert.

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Russia 'Quickly Running Out' of Weapons Putin Needs in Ukraine: General