According to Die Welt, the first self-propelled gun can be delivered only in two years.
Germany agreed to supply 18 self-propelled RCH-155 howitzers for Ukraine. This is in addition to heavy weaponry Berlin had already committed to handover, Die Welt claimed. The outlet claimed that the first shipment will not arrive until at least thirty months after the deadline.
According to Die Welt, on July 14 Ukraine’s defense minister Alexey Reznikov sent a letter to his German colleague Christine Lambrecht, asking Berlin to authorize the sale of RCH-155 howitzers worth 216 million Euros. For weeks, the German government reportedly deliberated over Kiev’s request, not issuing any official response.
However, on Friday, Ukraine’s acting ambassador to Germany, Andrey Melnik, told the outlet that Berlin had finally given the green light to the shipment and funding for the howitzers.
“With this, a big contribution is being made to massively strengthen the Ukrainian army’s strike capability,” the diplomat noted.
According to Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW), Ukraine will receive its first RCH-155 howitzers in the next 30 months. According to the report, defense companies are awaiting confirmation from the German government that these weapons systems will be sent to Ukraine.
According to the article, the RCH-155 Howitzer has the exact same ammunition type as the German-made PzH 2000 howitzer. Berlin already supplies ten units.
Top German officials, including Lambrecht, have repeatedly argued in recent weeks that the country can no longer provide weapons to Ukraine from its own military stocks for fear of undermining the Bundeswehr’s own capabilities.
This week, Lars Klingbeil, the co-leader of Germany’s Social Democratic party, also explained why Berlin was unwilling to provide modern German-made Leopard II battle tanks to Kiev. Klingbeil stated that the training of Ukrainian troops to use these tanks would take too many hours, thus shipping of these tanks to Kiev would have little effect, contrary to reports in German media.
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