Severodonetsk is one of the towns in the Luhansk region where the most difficult fighting is currently taking place. As the Ukrainian Interior Ministry reports, the 155-mm-calibre howitzers donated by Poland have changed the situation in the area. “The occupants have felt it,” Rostyslav Smirnov, an adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister, said as quoted by Ukrinform news agency on Friday.
“I can say that these howitzers, given to us by our Polish friends, have greatly changed the situation in Severodonetsk and the occupiers have felt it,” he stressed.
Will there be a breakthrough?
Commenting on French President Emmanuel Macron’s announcement that his country will hand over additional Caesar self-propelled howitzers to Ukraine, and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s words that Berlin will continue handing over weapons to Kyiv, Smirnov said that could change the course of the war.
“Only if we have a comparable amount of heavy weaponry with the Russians can we talk about concrete counter-attacks on the entire front line. This will be a strategic breakthrough in this war,” Smirnov said.
We learned the enemy’s positions, but there is nothing to fire with
“These are the howitzers that we lack at the moment, we do not have artillery guns capable of long-range firing for the time being. We have information about enemy positions, about concentrations of military equipment, but we lack howitzers. They may be the basis of our success in a counter-offensive. Without them we cannot even think (about counter-attacks),” he added.
At the end of May, Poland handed over 18 AHS Krab 155 mm self-propelled howitzers to Ukraine. A contract (worth around PLN 3 billion) was signed for the purchase of another 50.
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