Estonia has found a large number of artillery shells for Ukraine. It is not said where this ammunition was found, but that doesn’t even matter that much. It is now important to find funding to buy and transfer those shells to Ukraine.
Ukraine desperately needs ammunition. Image credit: Ivan Shatokhin via Wikimedia
“As for ammunition, funding is currently the bigger concern rather than the availability of munitions. When it was said that there was a lack of munitions, the Czech initiative to acquire 800,000 shells shows that munitions are actually available. Estonia also has a wide range of countries from which we could buy shells for Ukraine. I stated this yesterday at Ramstein, that if anyone is ready to financially contribute, they should contact us. We have the capability to purchase shells for Ukraine, including in large quantities and quickly,” said Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur, as quoted by Postimees.
The Czech Republic announced in February that it could arrange a large shipment of artillery shells to Ukraine. Several countries soon offered to help fund the purchase and delivery of this ammunition. It has not been announced where these shells came from, but many say they are from South Korea and African countries. Estonia now, it seems, also found through its own connections some shells that could be bought and delivered to Ukraine. Minister Pevkur confirmed that the source of that ammunition is not in Europe.
Estonian sources say that approximately 1 million artillery shells and rockets for Grad systems have been found. The value of the entire package may reach as much as 2-3 billion euros. If such funds were allocated, the Estonian authorities would organize the delivery of ammunition to Ukraine in just 2-3 months. We say “just”, but even 2-3 months is quite a long time for Ukraine, because Russia is expected to launch a major offensive in the beginning of the summer.
The lack of artillery ammunition is one of the biggest problems that Ukrainian soldiers have been talking about for months now. Even the withdrawal from Avdijivka was chosen at least in part because of a lack of artillery shells. Ukrainian soldiers repeatedly saw Russian assault groups approaching, but the howitzers had nothing to fire at them. The Russian invaders were allowed to get closer into the range of FPV drones, which work well but are still no substitute for artillery.
Czechs and, apparently, Estonians are promising 155mm and 122mm artillery shells. The first ones are used by NATO howitzers, of which Ukraine still has quite a few. Some Soviet artillery guns, of which Ukraine has many, use 122 mm shells. The D-30 is a good example of such a howitzer. On top of that, it’s been reported that Estonia also found Grad rockets for Ukraine. The Grad multiple launch rocket systems are commonly used as artillery to level enemy fortifications or stop their attempts to advance.
Written by Povilas M.
Source: Tech.wp.pl
