Ukraine has started using German weapons to conduct strikes on Russian soil, according to the tabloid Bild.
German-made Panzerhaubitze 2000 self-propelled guns, which have a range of up to 40km, have been deployed by the Armed Forces of Ukraine to Kharkov Region, the outlet reported in an article on Friday.
According to Bild’s correspondent, who visited the area, a German howitzer and its crew remain hidden in a dugout in a wooded area “not far from the Russian border.”
When the order to deploy the hardware comes from the commanders, the troops move the howitzer out of cover to a fixed firing position, make several shots, and then quickly retreat, the report read. They’re doing so due to the threat posed by Russian drones, it added.
The Ukrainian soldiers also complained to the German journalist about the heat inside the Panzerhaubitze 2000, which they said often leads to the breakage of certain devices inside the howitzer. The correspondent noted that the troops were surprised when he told them that the more modern versions of the hardware are equipped with air conditioners.
In late May, Germany followed the lead of the US and allowed Ukraine to deploy weapons that it had supplied to Kiev for strikes launched across the Russian border from Kharkov Region in an attempt to stem the advance of Moscow’s forces in the area.
Ukraine can use German arms provided for the purpose of self-defense “in accordance with its international legal obligations,” a German government spokesman said at the time. Berlin decided to greelight the cross-border attacks because Russia has “prepared, coordinated and carried out attacks from positions in the Kharkov area in particular from the immediately neighboring Russian border region,” he explained.
On Tuesday, White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said that Ukraine’s ability to fire US-supplied weapons deep into Russia goes beyond Kharkov and “extends to anywhere that Russian forces are coming across the border from the Russian side to the Ukrainian side to try to take additional Ukrainian territory.”
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that in response to the US, Germany and other NATO countries providing long-range systems to Ukraine, Moscow doesn’t “rule out supplying weapons to other countries, including North Korea,” with which Russia signed a strategic partnership agreement earlier this week.