Under public pressure to demonstrate its military support for Ukraine, the German government on June 21 declassified a list of equipment and weapons already being used to fight Russian forces and a laundry list of gear that should be on its way shortly that includes heavy weaponry like Gepard armored self-propelled anti-aircraft guns.
The complete list includes lethal and non-lethal military assistance Berlin has sent to Kyiv from its own stocks and new or promised deliveries from German industry under a $2 billion boost in 2022 defense spending.
“The additional funds are intended primarily to benefit Ukraine,” the German government said in a June 21 statement. “At the same time, they will be used to finance the increased German compulsory contributions to the European Peace Facility (EPF), which in turn can be used to reimburse the EU member states for the costs of providing support to Ukraine.”
The long list of vehicles, weapons, ammunition, and equipment was announced as “in preparations/implementation.” Citing operational security, the German government did not disclose further details or a timeline for delivery of the following:
- 30 Gepard armored self-propelled anti-aircraft guns, including around 6,000 rounds of anti-aircraft ammunition
- IRIS-T surface-to-air missile system
- Cobra artillery detection radar
- 80 Toyota pickup trucks
- Three MARS multiple rocket launchers with ammunition
- 54 M113 armored personnel carriers with armament (systems from Denmark, with conversion financed by Germany)
- 10,000 rounds of artillery ammunition
- 53,000 rounds of anti-aircraft ammunition
- 5.8 million rounds of handgun ammunition
- Seven Panzerhaubitze 2000 155mm self-propelled howitzers, including training and spare parts (joint project with the Netherlands)
- 5,000 combat helmets
- Eight mobile ground radars and thermal imaging devices
- 40 reconnaissance drones
- 10 protected vehicles
- Seven “jammers”
- Eight electronic anti-drone devices
- Four mobile, remote-controlled, protected demining devices
- 65 refrigerators for medical supplies
- One vehicle decontamination point
- 100 auto-injectors
- 14 anti-drone sensors and jammers
- 10 anti-drone cannons
- 100,000 first aid kits
- 22 trucks
Germany has been criticized for slow-rolling heavy weaponry to Ukraine even after pledging political support for the war against Russia in Ukraine. The public enumeration of military donations comes just a few days after German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, along with French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi made a train trip to Kyiv to get a firsthand account of what Ukraine needs to continue its fight. Germany has been sending some anti-tank weaponry, ammunition, soldier protective gear and other supplies. Buried near the end of Germany’s list of already-donated equipment are MiG-29 spare parts, which likely will allow Ukraine to get older or damaged jets back into the sky but does not technically cross the West’s self-imposed red line of providing offensive jet fighters. U.S. officials confirmed in April that Washington had facilitated deliveries of spare parts for the fighters, perhaps from Poland and even the United States.
The aid already sent to Ukraine includes the following:
- 3,000 Panzerfaust 3 semi-disposable single-shot rocket cartridges plus 900 launchers
- 14,900 anti-tank mines
- 500 Stinger man-portable air-defense systems (MANPADS)
- 2,700 Strela surface-to-air missiles
- 16 million rounds of handgun ammunition
- 50 Bunkerfaust rockets designed for use against hardened enemy positions
- 100 MG3 machine guns with 500 spare barrels and bolts
- 100,000 hand grenades
- 5,300 explosive charges
- 100,000 meters of detonating cord and 100,000 detonators
- 350,000 detonators
- 23,000 combat helmets
- 15 pallets of clothing
- 178 motor vehicles
- 100 tents
- 12 power generators
- six pallets of material for explosive ordnance disposal
- 125 binoculars
- 1,200 hospital beds
- 18 pallets of medical supplies, 60 surgical lights
- Protective clothing, surgical masks
- 10,000 sleeping bags
- 600 pairs of shooting glasses
- one radio frequency system
- 3,000 field telephones with 5,000 reels of field cord and carrying equipment
- one field hospital (joint project with Estonia)
- 353 sets night vision goggles
- Four electronic anti-drone devices
- 165 binoculars
- Medical supplies
- 38 laser range finders
- Diesel fuel and gasoline
- 10 tons of AdBlue diesel fuel exhaust fluid
- 500 wound dressings
- 500 food rations
- 2,025 pallets, or 68 truckloads, of food
- MiG-29 spare parts
- 30 armored vehicles
With that being said, a few days have passed since we have updated readers on the situation in Ukraine, and though the frontlines have moved little since then, plenty of note has occurred. Before we get into the nitty-gritty, take a moment to visit our past rolling coverage here.
The Latest
Ukrainian forces on June 17 used a Western-supplied Harpoon anti-ship missile to destroy the Russian naval tug Spasatel Vasily Behk while it was on a resupply run to Snake Island in the Black Sea. It was the first successful use of the weapon, which Denmark has supplied to Ukraine, according to the U.K. Ministry of Defense’s latest intelligence assessment of the war.
The U.S. has also promised Ukraine Harpoon missile systems, buoying Ukrainian coastal defense capabilities. Ukraine has already managed to sink the cruiser Moskva and several other Russian warships since the conflict began. With the weapons on hand, Ukraine already has “largely neutralized Russia’s ability to establish sea control and project maritime force in the northwestern Black Sea,” according to the U.K. MoD. “This has undermined the viability of Russia’s original operational design for the invasion, which involved holding the Odessa region at risk from the sea.”
Still, a Russian Admiral Grigorovich class frigate was seen on June 21 leaving the port of Sevastopol unmolested. This is the most powerful and modern warship class in the Black Sea and likely the flagship of the fleet now.
Elsewhere in the Black Sea, a Russian-controlled oil platform was observed continuing to burn from a weekend strike by Ukrainian forces. An oil slick was detected in satellite imagery of the burning rig.
Ukraine also says an operation is underway targeting Russian forces on Snake Island in the Black Sea. Recapturing the island would be a significant strategic victory by eliminating an otherwise unsinkable platform for Russian air defense assets and other weapons, including surface-to-surface missiles capable of striking into Ukraine proper. You can read our full report here.
Combat in the Donbas and Kherson regions is so fierce that the resulting conflagrations are visible to NASA’s space-based fire-detection sensors. In the below map, the frontlines are clearly defined by the intensity of the measured blazes.
In Lysychansk, located where the largest red blotch is on the right side of that map, Russian forces continue shelling industrial and residential areas with overwhelming firepower, inflicting “catastrophic damage” to the city.
Similar destruction was visited on Avdiivka, in the Donetsk Oblast, where Russian rockets struck a school.
Having held out for weeks against punishing Russian artillery and armored assaults, Ukrainian forces continue to fight off the Russians in the industrial area of Severodonetsk. Video posted to social media shows Ukrainian troops engaged in urban fighting with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades.
In Kharkiv, in northeast Ukraine, Russian forces continued shelling civilian infrastructure by blowing the roof off a metro station and destroying at least one train.
Political rhetoric between Russia and Europe heated up over the weekend as Lithuania blocked Moscow from using its railway system to ship goods to the military exclave of Kaliningrad. Russia retained possession of the sliver of territory between Poland and Lithuania on the Baltic Sea when the Soviet Union collapsed. The province now hosts Russia’s main Baltic Sea fleet, an army corps, and weaponry that includes Kinzhal air-launched ballistic missiles and nuclear-capable Iskander missiles.
Russia was using Lithuania’s railways to supply goods to Kaliningrad that are now under sanction by the EU and other backers of Ukraine. Responding to Lithuania’s move to blockade Kaliningrad, Secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev said Moscow would respond with measures that would have a “serious, negative impact” on Lithuania’s people.
Supplies continue to roll into Ukraine from countries in Europe. Most recently, a shipment of 35 Slovenian M80A infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) arrived by train on their way to reinforce Ukrainian forces fighting in the east. The vehicles are armed with 20mm cannons and 9M14 Malyutka anti-tank guided missiles.
They also represent yet another vehicle design added to an already eclectic mix of armored vehicles streaming into Ukraine from European military warehouses chock full of Cold War-era equipment, like Dutch YPR-765, based on the U.S.-made M113 IFV. While Ukraine welcomes all donations of military aid, it remains to be seen how the country might organize, maintain and support the disparate designs it will have in its inventory if the war concludes in Kyiv’s favor.
Some of the first footage of a Bureviy 220mm multiple-launch rocket system in Ukrainian service recently emerged. The Bureviy is a modification/upgrade of the older BM-27 Uragan.
Ukrainian forces were also seen firing and reloading an SPG-9 73mm recoilless rifle in the east with well-trained efficiency.
More and more, Western-supplied arms are showing up in Russian combat footage after being hit with artillery fire. Systems like U.S.-supplied M777 towed howitzers are important to Ukrainian forces dueling with Russian troops in the Donbas.
Over the Sea of Azov, a Russian Su-34 fighter carrying what appears to be a single Kh-31 air-to-surface missile was captured on video flying low in Primorsko-Akhtarsk.
To the east of the Azov Sea, in the Rostov Oblast, the wreckage of a Russian aircraft was identified as an Su-25 close-air-support jet. The pilot was apparently killed, though a photo of the ejector seat without a body in it was posted to Twitter. It is unclear whether the aircraft was shot down by Ukrainian forces or crashed for another reason.
As casualties continue to mount, fighters who hail from nations not officially involved in the hostilities are being killed. The U.S. State Department on June 21 confirmed the death of an American citizen who died in Ukraine in mid-May. The man’s name was Stephen Zabielski, according to a State Department spokesperson.
Being an American captured fighting for Ukraine is also not a desirable fate, as the Kremlin considers U.S. troops its forces captured in Ukraine mercenaries that Geneva Conventions do not protect. Two Americans fighting in Ukraine went missing a couple of weeks ago and are feared captured by Russia. The two men, Alexander Drueke and Andy Tai Huynh, are an Army veteran and a Marine veteran, respectively.
However, it could be Russian forces that should worry about international laws governing the conduct of war. U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland made an unannounced visit to Kyiv on June 21 to meet with Ukrainian Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova to discuss efforts to investigate and hold Russian troops accountable for war crimes.
In another unannounced move, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky again visited his troops in the frontline city of Lysychansk. It is at least the second time the leader has braved heavy fighting to spend time with troops in direct contact with opposing forces in the eastern salient.
Zelensky also met with American actor Ben Stiller, who traveled to Kyiv as a goodwill ambassador for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. Stiller joins a handful of U.S. celebrities — Sean Penn, Liev Shreiber, Angelina Jolie — who have traveled to Ukraine to bring awareness to a growing refugee crisis sparked by Russia’s unprovoked war.
Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense thanked Stiller in a Tweet, saying the country is “grateful to Hollywood stars who, despite the danger, have visited us.”
“Millions around the world have heard the truth from you about the struggle of the people,” the Ukraine MoD said.
We will continue to update this post until we state otherwise.
Contact the author: Dan@thewarzone.com