 Russia produces three times more shells than US and Europe for Ukraine war. Russia produces almost three times as much artillery ammunition as the United States and Europe combined, according to Western intelligence estimates. CNN and representatives of Western intelligence agencies reported this. According to NATO intelligence estimates regarding Russian defense production, the Russian Federation is capable of producing about 250,000 artillery shells per month or about 3 million per year. Together, the United States and Europe can only produce about 1.2 million rounds of ammunition a year to be sent to Ukraine, a European intelligence official told the TV channel. Officials say that Russia is now firing 10,000 shells a day while Ukraine can only manage 2,000. Representatives of a European intelligence report that the ratio is even worse in some parts of the contact line. The number one issue that we're watching right now is the munitions because that's where Russia really is mounting a significant production advantage and mounting a significant advantage on the battlefield. The NATO representative added, the source of the TV channel says artillery factories in the Russian Federation are working around the clock. In addition, Russia imports ammunition from Iran and North Korea. According to Western estimates, Iran sent at least 300,000 artillery shells last year, probably more than that. And North Korea provided at least 6,700 ammunition containers that contained millions of shells. Russia put everything they have in the game, an intelligence official said, their war machine works in full gear, the source added. At the same time, according to US and Western officials, the buildup of Russian weapons is still insufficient to meet its needs. In addition, Western intelligence agencies do not expect Russia to make significant progress on the battlefield in the short term. Officials say there is a limit to Russian production capacity, adding that Russian plants are likely to hit peak production sometime next year. Russia's elite build their own private armies, they are key to Putin's war plan moving forward. Russian oligarchs and state-owned companies are increasingly running private military companies and recruiting and training their own battalions for Russia's war in Ukraine. The Daily Beast reported this. Russian billionaire Viktor Shendrik, the head of the security department of Russian railways, has reportedly been backing a detachment of Russian fighters made up of a group of football fans called Española, according to iStory's media outlet. Shendrik is close with the Rottenberg brothers Arkady and Boris Rottenberg, two of the Russian billionaires who are longtime friends of Russian President Vladimir Putin and who were reportedly interested in having their own private military company. Española was first created last year, but Shendrik recently began sponsoring the group Sources told iStories, but the group isn't just a security group, the group is part of the reddit private military company which is operated by the Russian Ministry of Defense and has its own sniper reconnaissance and assault capabilities according to iStories. Putin's United Russia Party took control of the private military company last year, according to an intelligence assessment from the main directorate of intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, and the Española battalion has been fighting in Ukraine according to the intelligence report. In fact, Española's intelligence chief was recently killed in Ukraine, the group confirmed in a social media post earlier this week. This battalion is just one example of how central private military companies are to Russia. Even after the death of former Wagner group boss Evgeny Prigozhin, Sean McFate, a leading expert on mercenaries, told the Daily Beast. The Kremlin is still using mercenaries and private forces as a major tool of warfare, McFate said. Shendrik and the Rottenberg brothers are not alone in backing private military companies that then get sent to Ukraine. Gazprom, the state-owned energy company, has been working on several private military companies behind the scenes. Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin gave Gazpromneft an oil subsidiary of Gazprom, permission to create a private security group for its infrastructure, and the groups were tasked with protecting Gazprom-related entities. Roscosmos, Russia's space agency, has been backing the Euron, or Uranus battalion, since at least last year. The emerging trend of private military companies throughout Russia is key to Putin's war plan moving forward, McFate told the Daily Beast. They used to use it for plausible deniability in Africa and Syria, but now they're using it because it's a way for Putin to disguise the true costs of war to average Russians. He added.