‘We’ll have to learn Russian’: NATO chief rings alarm, says Russia’s quarterly ammo output dwarfs that of coalition

“We have an enormous geopolitical challenge on our hands… [Russia is] now producing three times as much ammunition in three months as the whole of NATO is producing in a year,” he said.

This disclosure comes amid an unprecedented escalation in Russia’s campaign in Ukraine. On Friday, Russia launched its largest aerial assault since the three-year-long war began, with over 550 drones and missiles being launched into Ukraine.

He said that the old 2 per cent spending target of NATO was unsustainable, saying that the nexus between Russia, China, and Iran has strengthened during the conflict, which has compounded the West’s geopolitical challenge with a “more and more interconnected” Indo-Pacific and Atlantic, while acknowledging that “China has its eye on Taiwan.”

At the 2025 NATO Summit in The Hague, member states agreed on investing 5 per cent of their GDP on defence—3.5 per cent on core defence requirements and 1.5 per cent on critical infrastructure and industrial base.

“Yes, this is an enormous amount of spending. But if we don’t, we’ll have to learn Russian,” he said.

Last year, a CNN report, citing NATO intelligence sources, revealed that Russia was producing 250,000 artillery munitions per month, or about 3 million a year—nearly three times the collective capacity of the US and Europe (1.2 million munitions annually).

Before the recent drone barrage, Russia’s UAV production jumped by 16.9 per cent in May compared to the previous month, news agency Reuters reported quoting data from a think tank close to the government.

Russia hiked state spending on national defence by a quarter in 2025 to 6.3 per cent of GDP—or 32 per cent of total 2025 federal budget expenditure—the highest level since the Cold War.

Situation on the ground

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reiterated the Kremlin’s rejection of a ceasefire in an interview published in the Hungarian outlet Magyar Nemzet, saying that Ukraine and its allies would utilise the time to regroup and reconstitute the Slavic nation’s military.

After the largest aerial assault on Friday, Russia said on Sunday it had captured two more settlements—Piddubne in Donetsk and Sobolivka in Kharkiv. On Monday, President Vladimir Putin mocked the West for deploying over 110,000 drones and spending $2 billion since the conflict began.

Russia has been progressively scaling up its aerial attacks, with its largest volleys deployed in recent months. More Ukrainian territories have been captured in recent weeks, and the pessimism in the air has grown thicker in the West.

In a major recalculation in foreign policy towards Russia, Trump has vowed military assistance to Ukraine, adding he was “not happy” with Putin. On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump—who has been a vocal critic of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for not being accommodative toward the Kremlin—said that Washington will have to send more weapons to Ukraine because it is “getting hit very hard,” the BBC report.