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| France To Send 12 Additional Howitzer Guns To Ukraine To Fight Russia |
Paris - France will send 12 more Caesar truck-mounted howitzer guns to Ukraine for its fight against Russian occupiers. This was conveyed by the Minister of Defense of France, Sebastien Lecornu, Tuesday (31/1/2023).
The delivery of 12 howitzer guns complements the 18 previously delivered. "The procurement of this handover will be financed from a 200 million euros ($217 million) fund that France is preparing to finance weapons to Kiev," Lecornu told a joint news conference with his Ukrainian counterpart, Oleksiy Reznikov.
Quoted from thedefensepost, along with Western-supplied mobile guns such as Germany's Panzerhaubitze 2000, last year's Caesar Plus truck-mounted howitzer helped Ukraine engage targets far behind Russian lines, undermining Moscow's attack.
The truck-mounted 155mm guns could be mounted, firing highly accurate volleys at ranges of up to 40 kilometers (25 miles), and changing positions before the enemy could find and fire back. “A new batch of howitzers will be delivered in the coming weeks,” continued Lecornu.
As well as France, Denmark has also pledged its entire fleet of 19-man French-built howitzers to the Ukraine war effort. France was in early December the seventh biggest backer of Ukraine since war broke out, according to data on military and financial aid compiled by the Germany-based Institute for the World Economy think tank yet to be aware of last month's major military equipment announcements.
But European aid is still a long way from the United States' military aid commitments. Even though he has received a large supply of military equipment from a number of Western allied countries, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenksy continues to ask for additional assistance for his troops to face the onslaught of Russian troops in various sectors of the battle.