Germany will provide seven armored howitzers to Ukraine to help repel the Russian invader, the Defense Ministry said on Friday, increasing its efforts to deliver heavy weapons to Kyiv somewhat.
The announcement was made by Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht, currently on a visit to Slovakia, the same source said.
The Panzerhaubitze 2000 (Armored Howitzer Model 2000) is a self-propelled gun manufactured by the industrialist Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW). The devices intended for Ukraine come from the maintenance stocks of the Bundeswehr, said the minister, without specifying when the deliveries would take place.
Ukrainian soldiers will be trained in their use in Germany from next week.
They will be added to five other howitzers of the same type that the Netherlands recently announced that it wanted to supply to Kyiv.
The German army has about a hundred 2000 howitzers, but only about forty of them are operational.
The government of Olaf Scholz has been severely criticized in Germany but also by European partners such as the Baltic States and Poland who consider its military support for Ukraine too timorous.
After having limited its deliveries to defensive weapons, Berlin finally decided to send heavy equipment and announced at the end of April that it wanted to supply kyiv with tanks of the “Guepard” type.