states, estonia, czech republic, poland, germany, land and what is important, it is nato standard, a limitless supply and the ukrainians have been era kit, so basically we re turning ukraine s military, at least in the artillery sense of the word, into a nato peer army. that, in itself, even if you discount the fact they re actively engaged in war, is kind of an extraordinary development. i was in washington the last several days and a common refrain if top officials is, at this point, they feel the ukrainians forces are almost as armed as the russians. russians have the advantage in manpower. yeah. they also anticipate we re about to enter a phase of this war that could be months if not longer, just a long slog of the two sides shelling at each other on the east there in the donbas. the thing to watch, too, is does putin on may 9th, does he use this as an opportunity to
course of the russian offensive there. that s what ukrainian and u.s. officials told the new york times. ukrainian forces learned that the general may have been at a russian base in izyum near kharkiv just before it was destroyed by fighters and the report is that the general was wounded in the leg during that attack. those claims were not repeated by official ukrainian armed forces sources. ukrainian forces claim that at least 200 russian soldiers, including a separate general, were killed saturday, in the russian-controlled city of izyum. visits to the front lines by such a high-ranking member of the russian army is unusual. this general is known as vladimir putin s right-hand man in the military. joining us now, news director for new alliance magazine, investigative journalist michael weiss, one of our favorites keeping us informed on the war. let s start there.
countries do. now, they re getting 155 millimeter shells, which is the nato standard. they re becoming an almost nato peer army in the midst of this. this is bad news for russia. russia is not just suffering from a manpower shortage. they re also suffering from a firepower shortage. i spoke to the deputy defense minister of ukraine last week. interesting statistic. he said of all the things that have been shot into the air that we have taken down, cruise missiles, aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles, 90% of the guts of these munitions, the electronics, are manufactured in two places. guess where. the united states and europe, right? dual-use electronics. sanctions are going to have a big impact on russia s ability to restock. again, i don t see how they do what they want to do. might have minimal gains, tactical victories here or there, take a settlement. but mariupol has not fallen. the size of the facility is