Polish Krab self-propelled howitzers as well as the Danish land-based Harpoon anti-ship missiles are already in Ukraine and ready for action, Ukraine’s defense minister said on Thursday.
The confirmation comes just a day after Polish officials revealed the signing of a contract to sell an unspecified number of the 155mm self-propelled howitzers to Ukraine in what will be Poland’s first export deal for the system.
As reported, the deal would cover some 60 vehicles, not including the rumored 18 second-hand ones that Poland previously donated to Ukraine.
“I am happy to inform you that Polish self-propelled artillery units AHS Krab are ready to carry out combat missions at the front,” Ukraine’s defense minister Oleksii Reznikov said.
“After M777 and FH70 howitzers, CAESAR self-propelled howitzers and M109A3, these units are the 5th type of 155 mm artillery that we managed to obtain.”
He also added that 150 platforms of the 155 mm artillery have so far been secured, with the stockpiles of ammunition already being 10 percent larger than the stockpiles of Soviet-type large-caliber shells that existed before the start of Russia’s invasion on February 24.
At the same time, more than 50 other large-caliber cannons were supplied to the armed forces of Ukraine. This includes projectiles for them, which constitute over 75 percent of the amount that existed at the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion, the defense minister explained.
“We received around 250 armored vehicles of Western models (M113 TM, M113 YPR-765, Bushmaster, Mastiff, Husky, Wolfhound etc.) from our partners,” Reznikov continued.
“And this is not to mention the MANPADS (Stinger, Starstreak, Mistral, Piorun, Grom etc.), ATGMs (NLAW, Javelin, Milan etc.) and grenade launchers (Panzerfaust, Carl Gustaf, AT4, RGW-90 HH / MATADOR etc.). As you may well know, there are thousands of them.”
“This is not even close to a complete list. It is too early to talk about certain other modern weapon systems. We will talk of them later. But the enemy will feel their effect on their own skin right now.”
Reznikov also confirmed that the land-based Harpoon anti-ship missiles were already in use in Ukraine.
“Together with our Neptunes, the Harpoons are already forcing the enemy fleet to keep the distance to avoid the fate of the Russian Black Sea Fleet flagship Moskva.”.
