19 February, 2024
Ukrainian Armor, in cooperation with a European ammunition manufacturer, has delivered a batch of 122-mm artillery rounds to Ukrainian Defense Forces.
The company announced this on its Facebook page.
This batch consists of thousands of high-explosive rounds.
The company emphasized that they have been working together to increase the supply of 122-mm artillery rounds for the Ukrainian army.
“Today, a batch of 122-mm high explosive rounds produced in partnership with one of the Eastern European ammunition holdings has been delivered to Ukraine,” said Vladyslav Belbas, CEO of Ukrainian Armor LLC.
A batch of 122-mm high explosive rounds for Armed Forces of Ukraine. February, 2024. Photo credits: Ukrainian Armor
He also added that rounds of this caliber were essential for the Ukrainian army. They are used daily by Ukrainian artillery to fire D-30 towed howitzers and 2S1 Gvozdika self-propelled howitzers.
A batch of 122-mm high explosive artillery rounds for Armed Forces of Ukraine. February, 2024. Photo credits: Ukrainian Armor
According to Belbas, the company has managed to establish systematic serial production and significantly increase the production of 122-mm artillery rounds.
As previously reported, Ukrainian Armor handed over the first thousand 122-mm high-explosive rounds with a full charge to the Ukrainian military in August last year.
At the same time, the company continues to produce and develop new models of armored vehicles and weapons.
Vladyslav Belbas. Photo credits: opk.com.ua
In January of this year, Vladyslav Belbas said that Ukrainian Armor has been producing about 100 mortars of various calibers every month.
Also, as of January, the company has a rate of production of mortar rounds at the level of about 20,000 per month.
Mortars from the “Ukrainian Armor” company on the territory of the enterprise. January 2024. Ukraine. Freeze from ABC News video
In total, the company reached a production rate of 1,200 mortars and 240,000 mortar mines per year. It can’t be ruled out that these rates will grow in 2024.
Ukrainian Armor is but one company in the country that’s producing ammunition, and it’s not the only one which has increased production. This is vital for the country, needless to say. Maybe, with the help of foreign partners, Ukraine could one day soon make enough ammo on its own, cutting down on the need to rely on others. I certainly hope so.
Actually Ukraine had ten years time to do so. Always too little and too late, like western aid.
Hmm, Mike, aren’t you pro-Poroshenko? He has to be blamed for the lack of a determined defence industry program, too. Having said that, I acknoledge that there had been many political obstacles towards better policies. Zelensky has the advantage now that he can act more ruthlessly against corruption, bad influences and outright sabotage.
You don’t know me for too long, Gray. I’m a Yulia-supporter since 2003. I like Petro alot, but he just like his successor keep having severe shortcomings when it comes to mismanagement and corruprion.
Ah, ok, thanks for the insight, Mike! But as for “mismanagement and corruprion” – let’s be realistic, you can’t get rid of a crooked political and economic culture in two years. Such a paradigm change typically takes decades. I guess that Timoshenko, Poroshenko and Zelensky, despite their political differences, are basically patriotic Ukrainians, who try to improve the lifes of their countrymen. However, neither of them can do miracles, and we should keep our expectations at a reasonable level.
Without Poroshenko rebuilding the army after being elected, Ukraine would have been run over in a few weeks. Once Zelensky was elected, rebuilding the army was pushed aside, he was more interested in building roads.
From what I’ve read, there’s some truth to that, ok, Foccusser. As I see it, as an outside observer with limited informations, Zelensky wanted to focus on creating the necessary infrastructure for economic growth (nothing wrong with that, generally) and thought he could afford to do so by reducing the Russian thread in negotiations with Putin. His biggest mistake, most probably. It has been a brutal wakeup for him.
Zelensky never wanted to negotiate. He insulted Poroshenko for his hard line during his ‘election campaign’ but later broke all promises concerning negotiations and cracking downe on corruption.
Ok, too much counterproductive infighting in Ukrainian politics, sure (but then, where’s that different? Not in Germany.). But I believe that Zelensky really wanted to fight corruption, right from the start. It was his own, brand new party, filled with way too many of the same old crooked politicians, that sabotaged the attempts, that’s quite obvious. Zelensky may have been naive to expect more, but that’s also the result of Yermak’s questionable management, imho. He’s too much of a status quo fixer, not really a reformer.
Zelensky never served in the military, he even downeplayed the invasion. Ukraine needs a strong leader who can convince our allies to give all they have for a ukrainian victory. Zelensky is the wrong man. Putin’s claims he hates Zelensky are as credible as his claims he hates Trump. He adores complete incompetence.
Well, that’s your opinion, Mike, mine is different. Who’s right will show after the war, when more facts become known.
Absolutely.
Ukrainian Armour is a controversial company in Ukraine. There have been accusations that this company paid too much to foreign agents involved in the arms deals. The necessity to use such middlemen arises from the problem that some countries don’t want to deal directly with Ukraine, most importantly Bulgaria, with its big ammunition works (where the 122 mm grenades may come from). Ukrainian authorities (NABU, SBU) are investigating these deals. Also, there’s a suspicion that one or several of the shareholders of the company may actually be strawmen and there may be a crooked wheeler-dealer, politician or oligarch raking in illegal profits. Read more about this in interviews with CEO Belbas and industry association leader Pashinskyi
https://www.epravda.com.ua/publications/2023/12/21/707951/
https://www.epravda.com.ua/publications/2024/02/16/710033/
(Ukrainian sources, use translation)
All in all, there should be a better, more direct way to do such import business, without involving middlemen who only drive the costs up. Why can’t Nato organize this instead?
If they are making ammo and handing it over to the Ukrainian army, I’m fine with that. If there are crooks in the company, the SBU will extract them in due time.