Part of the ammunition delivered as part of the Czech initiative explodes prematurely and endangers soldiers and equipment, the Ukrainian government complained in an August letter addressed to the Czech government.
“During the combat use of the above cartridges, a number of grenade explosions occurred at a distance of 20 to 60 meters from the muzzle, as a result of which personnel were injured and artillery systems were damaged,” states the letter from the Ukrainian side, which is available to Handelsblatt.
According to Kyiv, the high level of problems with projectiles is due to defective M515 and M51A5 detonators, which were developed during the Second World War. In a delivery of almost 35 thousand artillery shells, 0.05 percent of them exploded prematurely, i.e. five out of every 10 thousand shells fired.
By the end of August, 15 countries contributed to the Czech initiative. Some time ago, the first shipment of approximately 50,000 pieces of ammunition arrived in Ukraine. The Czech Republic cooperates mainly with the Netherlands and Denmark on the initiative. The Czech Republic alone contributed almost 866 million crowns. 500 thousand pieces of ammunition should be delivered to Ukraine by the end of the year.
Ammunition for Ukraine within the framework of the Czech initiative can be divided. It is new, produced not only in the Czech Republic, but also abroad, and purchase of stock from various foreign sources. Some of the original components must be replaced with newly produced ammunition for ammunition from stock, purchased for example in Asia or Africa, to ensure compatibility with the howitzers used by the Ukrainian armed forces.
