The poor quality of ammunition supplied by Pakistan is turning out to be a handicap for Ukraine’s troops fighting against Russian forces in Bakhmut in the bloodiest battle since World War II.

BBC defence correspondent Jonathan Beale has reported from Bakhmut that commanders of tank units there, who are running short of ammunition, are complaining about the bad quality of rockets supplied by Pakistan.

The report cites Volodymyr, from Ukraine’s 17th Tank Battalion, as saying Ukraine has already burned through its own stocks of Grad ammunition, so is relying on rockets sourced from other countries.

Volodymyr says supplies are coming from the Czech Republic, Romania and Pakistan. He complains the rockets originating from Pakistan are “not of a good quality,” the BBC report states.

Despite the recent arrival of modern weapons – like tanks and armoured vehicles – Ukraine remains heavily reliant on its older, Soviet-era arsenal.

First developed in the 1960s, it is a form of Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) nicknamed Grad – meaning “hail” in Russian as it involves raining down bombs like a hailstorm across a wide target area.

Pakistan has been denying that it is supplying military equipment and ammunition to Ukraine as it also wants to be on the right side of Russia.

The BBC report confirms that ammunition supplied by Pakistan has reached Ukrainian soldiers on the war front.

Pakistan is actually playing a double game of supporting Ukraine to build bridges with the Western powers to revive its sunk economy and at the same time cultivate Russia to get oil at cheap prices.

While overtly Pakistan advocates peace in Ukraine through mediation and negotiations, it is covertly supplying arms and ammunition which have resulted in prolonging the Ukraine war.

Islamabad’s pro-west policy has as a quid pro quo ensured that Pakistan was removed from the Grey List of the FATF and now the West is putting pressure on the IMF to deliver a USD 1.1 billion bailout package to Pakistan despite the latter’s reluctance to agree to IMF conditionalities for the loan.