Artillery supplied to Ukraine by the USA and its allies is constantly broken or damaged, which is becoming a problem for the Pentagon, The New York Times reported, citing officials in the United States and Ukraine.
Broken and damaged guns have been sent to Poland for maintenance and repair in recent months. It is noted that repair and maintenance of artillery, including at a facility in Poland, has become a priority for the Pentagon’s European command.
However, Ukraine would like such a facility to be located not in Poland, but closer, in order to return weapons to the combat zone faster, the article said.
As the paper notes, at any given moment about a third of the Western howitzers sent to Ukraine are in an unacceptable condition for use, including due to their intensive use.
The USA earlier handed Kiev long-range M777 howitzers with a calibre of 155 millimetres, Ukrainian troops actively use them to shell cities in Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics. Ukrainian troops were also supplied with German PzH 2000 self-propelled artillery systems, Polish Krab and French CAESAR anti-tank artillery systems which use shells of this calibre.