The US will buy 1,00,000 rounds of howitzer ordnance from South Korean manufacturers to give to Ukraine, a US functionary has said, in a deal the two governments have been working on for some time.
The agreement comes as Ukrainian leaders press for further munitions and aid to take advantage of a counterattack that’s pushing Russian forces out of some areas they had taken over before in the conflict. And it relieves enterprises within the US military — particularly the Army and the Marine Corps who are upset that patient transfers of the Pentagon’s howitzer security to Ukraine are eating into their stashes.
Other defence officers verified the broad outlines of the contract and said it would help with cache pressures, specifically involving the howitzer security, which Ukrainian forces have been using at a high rate.
South Korea’s Defence Ministry in a statement conceded ongoing addresses over exporting an unidentified number of 155-millimetre ordnance shells to shore up dwindling US supplies. still, the ministry said the accommodations were pacing under the presumption that the US would be the “end stoner” of those rounds and that Seoul maintains its principle of furnishing only non-lethal support to Ukraine.
Last week in a defence-sanctioned briefing journalists said Ukraine was burning through as numerous as 7,000 rounds of security a day, while Russia was firing as many as 20,000 rounds daily.
The officers spoke on condition of obscurity because details of the deal hadn’t been made public.
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Non-lethal inventories
Until now, South Korea had preliminarily limited its support for Ukraine to non-lethal outfits and inventories. In April, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pressed South Korea to give murderous arms after Russia’s attack on Mariupol.
Seoul’s Defence Ministry verified at the time that it had rejected the Ukrainian request for anti-aircraft munitions.
In a statement, Army Lieutenant Colonel Marty Meiners, Pentagon prophet, said the US government has been in conversations to buy security from South Korea’s non-government defence artificial base. The security would not come from South Korean service stocks. He declined to give details.
Meiners said any implicit deals always take into account the South Korean service’s readiness and conditions and “will not abstract from our protective posture or readiness to respond against indigenous pitfalls.” He added that South Korea’s defence assiduity regularly sells military outfits and munitions systems to abettors and mates, including the US.
Read More: Russia orders troop withdrawal from Ukraine’s Kherson city
No listed time for deliveries
South Korea has also signed several recent arms deals with European countries eager to bolster their defences in the wake of Russia’s assault on Ukraine, including nearly $9 billion in multiple contracts with Poland to give F-16 fighter spurts, training aircraft, tanks and howitzers.
The security deal was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
Meiners said he couldn’t give information on how snappily the security could get to Ukraine. He said the Pentagon has regular exchanges with South Korea and other abettors around the world about how stylish to support Ukraine in the fighting.
The disclosure of the agreement came as Russia said it was beginning to withdraw its forces from the crucial megacity of Kherson. Ukrainian officers conceded Moscow’s colours and had no choice but to flee Kherson, yet they remained conservative, stewing in an ambush.
Source: AFP
