Over the past year, Russia, despite the international sanctions imposed on it, has significantly strengthened its positions and succeeded in conducting hostilities against Ukraine.
This was stated by Vice Admiral Nils Andreas Stensens, Head of the Intelligence Service at the Norwegian Ministry of Defence, in an interview with the Norwegian TV channel TV2, cited by Yevropeiska Pravda.
According to him, Ukraine is unable to produce the necessary weapons on its own and is "entirely dependent on material support from the West", while much of the Western equipment received by Kyiv has been "lost or used".
At the same time, he estimates that Russia is "in the process of gaining military superiority" and is capable of increasing the production of ammunition and long-range precision weapons.
The head of the Norwegian intelligence service listed the specifics of Russia's military advantage over Ukraine:
Russia can draft about three times as many people to the front as Ukraine;
Moscow is coping with Western sanctions better than expected;
Russian arms production is increasing at a faster pace.
"We see that Russia will need less time to recover from the war than we estimated last year," said the head of Norwegian intelligence, urging Europe to prepare "for big changes and a more unpredictable situation."
Background. As a reminder, Umerov wrote letters to EU leaders about the critical shortage of shells in Ukraine. The Ukrainian Armed Forces use three times fewer shells per day than the Russian army, the document says.