Exclusive: Russia producing three times more artillery shells than US and Europe for Ukraine

We have a CNN exclusive which could raise alarms about the future on the front lines of Ukraine. CNN has learned that Russia is making nearly three times as many artillery rounds then what the U.S. and Europe combined are producing for Ukraine. A senior European intelligence official says Russia's war machine is in full gear and is artillery. Factories are going nonstop ahead of a potential offensive later this year. CNN's Kate Lillis joins us now to share her exclusive reporting. Katie, Beau, t

ell us more about what you've learned here. Kate, what I've learned is some pretty staggering numbers that really illustrate how quickly Russia has been able to ramp up its defense production for U.S. and Ukraine in ways that have have really left the U.S. and the West behind in some ways. What what I have learned from a senior Nieto official is that the most important number here, of course, is artillery and according to this official, Russia is producing about 250,000 artillery munitions per m

onth, or about 3 million a year. And that's compared to just 1.2 million artillery rounds that the U.S. and Europe are producing for use in Ukraine in the same timeframe in about a year. And this is important because officials tell us that artillery is really the number one metric that they are watching in Ukraine here. Right. What this is really a war that is expected to be won or lost on the number of artillery rounds that are able to be traded back and forth across this 600 mile front. It's r

eally the math here really matters. And as a result, Ukraine has really had to ration the number of artillery rounds that it's able to fire in a day. We know from these same officials that Ukraine is firing about 2000 artillery rounds per day compared to about 10,000 that Russia is firing. And in some places, we're told the ratio is is even worse. Russia officials tell us, has been able to ramp up its defense production much more quickly than the West, in large part because it's effectively a ma

naged economy in which Putin can can really just order these factories to to to fire up and start producing. Right. And so we know from officials now that Russia's factories, Russia's artillery factories are running. 20 47 in rotating 12 hour shifts. And in fact, the defense sector, according to the senior NATO official that I spoke to, is now the largest part of their economy. And of course this this matters because Ukraine has now become so dependent on Western support Western aid to be able t

o continue this fight. And we're watching now with U.S. funding for support in Ukraine really drying up and Europe sort of rushing to try to make up the shortfall, but not clear that they're going to be able to sort of produce as much as as the as the US has been providing really now. This all comes down to whether congressional support for aid for Ukraine in the United States restarts. It's been stalled by Republican opposition. Now, Ukraine closely watching what will happen with that support g

oing forward and what happens in the presidential election in November. We have this exclusive CNN reporting that the arsenal of democracy and by that I mean the United States and Europe, Ukraine's allies falling behind in production of these crucial artillery shells that Russia is producing well over three times as many artillery shells just before spring when Russia, as far as we know, could be launching a major offensive This is a major problem. Both Gaza, Israel, you know, this war in the Mi

ddle East and the one in Ukraine is really testing the American led international world order, particularly in Ukraine, where President Putin is simply disregarding all the rules of the international road. So Ukraine was doing fine, keeping Putin at bay for a long time, for two years now. It is definitely saying that it is on the back foot. And it's not just the production that Russia has ramped up. It's the firing of shells. According to this. CNN reporting that Russia appears to be firing some

10,000 shells a day. Ukraine only to because it's having to ration. And this is directly linked to what the Congress has done, which is to block any further military support to Ukraine while the E.U. is desperately trying to fill the gap, at least financially. So it's really tragic. And, you know, this was brought up even at the Oscars. Mr. Slav can often his 20 days in Mariupol won the Oscar for documentaries. And it just shows the devastation of Russia's war on Ukraine, its aggression, its ob

literation of cities, towns, villages and civilians as well. And this is all here. And it's a wonderful man, a wonderful filmmaker who said he would gladly trade his Oscar to have had Russia never invade Ukraine. Christiane Amanpour, great to have you. Thank you so much.