Sri Lanka has yet again been pushed amidst the global geopolitical tug-of-war over the Russo-Ukraine conflict, with reports alleging that Poland is attempting to use third-party sources to obtain a large consignment of surplus ammunition, mostly artillery shells, rockets and mortars from Sri Lanka with the intent to provide to the ammunition starved Ukraine. Sri Lanka has avoided taking sides in the conflict, calling on both parties to come to a negotiated settlement of their grievances.

Reports alleged that Poland is allegedly attempting to acquire surplus military equipment from Sri Lanka for shipment to Ukraine. The munitions are reportedly expired and would have their markings erased and repainted before being transported to Poland and eventually to the Ukrainian battlefield. The deal reportedly involves a Polish company named “Level 11 SP. Z O.O” and a Sri Lankan firm, ‘Cosmic Technologies Private Limited.’ Sources cited by Russia Today suggest that the transaction could compromise Sri Lanka’s friendly relations with Russia, jeopardising its long-term interests for short-term economic benefits, a local web news outlet stated last morning.

The Sri Lankan Ministry of Defence yesterday (30) refuted the reports and their allegations, stating that they were false. When contacted, the Defence Ministry Spokesperson rejected the allegations, stating that there is no validity to the reports. However, the spokesperson acknowledged the presence of ammunition that has passed its shelf life, and are stored in state-owned warehouses in the country. Adding that these stocks do not belong to the Ministry of Defence but to a foreign private company, which has been tasked to promptly remove or destroy the surplus munitions due to safety concerns. The fact that there had been no transparency in the dealing does raise concerns.

However, it is learnt that both Russia and Ukraine, via their many European and North American allies, have been trying to secure Sri Lanka’s ‘expired’ war stock, which was stockpiled when plans were drawn up to defeat the LTTE. According senior government sources, last year (2023) a Western country which has long standing ties to Sri Lanka and had been involved in helping with debt restructuring had solicited to purchase a stocks of ammunition; mostly artillery shells and rockets that were in the Sri Lankan strategic reserves, and were nearing the end of their ‘shelf-life’, with the aim of shipping them to their allies on the Ukrainian front, were a large volume of ammunition is expended on a daily basis. However, despite much negotiation, and the offering of ‘millions of dollars’ to cash strapped Sri Lanka, the deal had not panned out. There is an unquenchable demand for artillery ammunition in the Ukraine-Russia conflict, where land warfare has broken many predictions and largely reduced to World War I like ‘artillery warfare’. 

Both Ukraine and Russia are starved for ammunition. Ukraine more so than Russia, who has turned to the massive defence industrial base which North Korea and the Islamic State of Iran controls to obtain ammunition. The ‘West’ however is struggling to meet Ukraine’s demand, due to smaller stockpiles, and lesser defence industrial base.  Despite military modernisation, and allied support, both Russia and Ukraine still largely use soviet-era equipment. Their primary artillery consists of 122mm, 130mm, and 152mm and 122mm rocket projectiles. Sri Lanka’s surplus ammunition stockpile consists largely of ammunition for the similar weapon system, with stocks originating from Iran, Pakistan and largely Russia. There are also Slovakian–Czech Republic built 122mm rockets which are in the Sri Lankan inventory.

Many western nations and the United States are scrambling to source ammunition for Ukraine, while revamping their NATO standard defence industrial complex to pump out more ordinance. Ukraine fired between 4,000 and 7,000 such shells daily for several months in 2023, according to NATO’s Secretary General. However, in recent months, it has reduced to around 2000 rounds per day. This has adversely affected the Ukrainian capacity to sustain their operational tempo, letting Russia regain territory and negate some losses. As such, there is a global push to provide more ammunition for Ukraine.

However, Sri Lanka should sustain their neutrality stance and not allow Sri Lankan ammunition, paid for by our taxpayers to fuel foreign conflicts. One senior defence official The Daily Morning spoke to opined: “We should either de-militaries them locally, if we can do that safely or dump them into a deep trench in the territorial sea like we used to do with ‘use by date’ ammunition during the war. We should not let our guys (ex-armed forces personnel) fight in their wars nor should we sell them ammunition to kill each other.”