British Intelligence update on Ukraine as of Feb. 15

British Intelligence update on Ukraine as of Feb. 15

On 09 February 2023, Deputy Security Council Chairman Dmitry Medvedev called for an increase in Russian tank production while visiting the Omsk Transport Machine Construction plant.

This follows several public comments by President Putin urging the defence industry to better support the ’special military operation’.

In a televised meeting on 12 January 2023, Putin castigated Denis Manturov, the deputy prime minister with responsibility for the defence industry, for ‘fooling around’; one of the president’s strongest public outbursts since the invasion.

Senior Russian leaders are likely aware that the state’s military industrial output is becoming a critical weakness, exacerbated by the strategic and operational miscalculation of invading Ukraine.

Production is almost certainly falling short of the Russian MoD’s demands to resource the Ukraine campaign and restore its longer-term defence requirements.