A really interesting story in @CNN US sources say that Russian artillery fire is now far lower than this summer. As much as 75% lower. edition.cnn.com/2023/01/10/pol…
US and Ukraine have slightly different estimates, but regardless, Russian artillery fire is way down. In the US view, the Russians are down to firing 5000 shells a day 'on average', which would actually means Russia is firing fewer than Ukraine some days. 
Seems to be a confluence of factors. RUssian stockpiles were not nearly as large as we were led to believe, those stockpiles were inefficiently stored, and Ukrainian attacks on Russian stockpiles/logistics--all have taken a toll.
If Russian fire really is this low, reinforces how counterproductive their continuing assaults on Soledar and Bakhmut are. They would be putting a great deal of their declining artillery strength into attacking towns of no strategic importance. kyivindependent.com/national/russi…
This would leave them precious little to try and disrupt Ukrainian attempts to organize their next offensive--which should be a Russian priority (but is seemingly not).
Also, strong quote from @general_ben about the ludicrousness of the escalation debate. Points out that only a few months ago giving Stingers was being said to be escalatory by some.
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