A small part of the artillery shells received from the United States and the Czech initiative turned out to be defective and exploded prematurely, Suspilne reports.
This is stated in a letter from the Ukrainian government to the Czech Republic, which was received by the German publication Handelsblatt.
It is noted that this refers to artillery ammunition that was supplied to Kyiv from the United States, as well as within the framework of the Czech initiative to supply Kyiv with ammunition.
During the combat use of the above-mentioned shells, there were numerous cases of explosions at a distance of 20 to 60 meters from the muzzle (artillery unit – ed.). The military and artillery systems were damaged, – the newspaper quotes the document, which was at the disposal of journalists.
The letter states that the reason for the premature explosion of the shells is the outdated M515 and M51a5 fuzes, developed during World War II.
According to the Ukrainian military, 0.05% of the 35,000 rounds of ammunition provided by the West for the Ukrainian Armed Forces were unusable due to this.
Thus, out of 10,000 fired shells, five exploded prematurely, – Handelsblatt calculated.
The existence of “errors in functionality” in some shells was confirmed by the Czech arms manufacturer CSG, a subsidiary of Excalibur Army. However, they noted that this concerned only a very small part of the ammunition provided to Ukraine under the Czech initiative.
The CSG also added that the problems could have been caused by an unsuccessful combination of artillery ammunition components: for example, an incompatible detonator and a fuel charge in a shell.
On the other hand, problems could also arise due to the fact that Ukraine was supplied with ammunition that had been stored in warehouses for a long time. Against this background, Handelsblatt recalls a Financial Times report that the British government sends weapons and equipment to conflict regions that would otherwise be disposed of in order to save costs.
Handelsblatt also writes that similar problems have been reported with ammunition of the same type that Ukraine received from the United States – in August, Kyiv informed the US Army Command in Europe.
According to the Czech Ministry of Defense, as part of the Western allies’ initiative to provide Ukraine with artillery ammunition, Kyiv has already received more than 2 million large- and medium-caliber shells.
At the same time, a letter sent by Kyiv to Prague pointing out the inadequate quality of some of the shells emphasized that Ukraine appreciates the Czech Republic’s efforts to provide assistance.
