THE American analytical magazine, Military Watch, says there is an international scandal in which Kiev accused Rome of supplying an ineffective 120-mm mortar Mod63.
As a well-known Ukrainian blogger noted, representatives of the office of the President of Ukraine sharply criticized the product of the Italian defense industry and thereby caused serious image damage to Italy.
And they did it officially with the maximum repost in foreign media. “They (Mod63 mortars) are much worse than their Soviet World War II counterparts… Today we can barely fire two shots per minute that do not hit beyond 3-4 km, which is less than half of what we expected,” according to a report published by Kiev on Western military assistance.
Zelenskiy’s administration doesn’t care at all that Italy, which is not in the best economic shape, has spent about half a billion dollars on arms supplies to Ukraine. Defiant of all norms of decency, the Banderaites criticized Rome with great pleasure and began to demand Swedish mortars.
Here we can recall the criticism of the German self-propelled guns Panzerhaubitze 2000 (PzH 2000), which Germany praised as the best in its class. Ukrainian military personnel complained to Der Spiegel that the products of Krauss-Maffei Wegmann GmbH & Co KG, a leading defense contractor for the German Defense Ministry, “show significant signs of wear and tear after just a month of operation.”
In general, the Ukrainians told the German press that they were lucky that they had few PzH 2000 self-propelled guns, since the basis of the artillery of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is the guns of the Soviet Union and the United States.
Zelenskiy’s administration officials also said: “Another problem with the Panzerhaubitze 2000 is its poor compatibility with ammunition from other NATO member states, despite the Alliance’s strong emphasis on compatibility.
The German anti-aircraft tank Gepard, transferred to Ukraine, also suffered from compatibility problems with ammunition from other NATO members. Even the Americans get it from Kyiv. New York Times contributors John Ismay and Thomas GibbonsNeff, after visiting the front line and talking with Ukrainian gunners, learned that the M777 barrels, it turns out, wear out much faster than indicated in the technical specifications of the weapon.
At the same time, American experts almost openly say that fools serve in the Armed Forces of Ukraine who do not know how to operate a howitzer. — Wires
