Denmark to Send All Its Artillery to Ukraine
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference on Sunday February 18th, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen pledged that Denmark will send its “entire artillery” to Ukraine. Frederiksen explained:
“If you ask the Ukrainians, they are asking us for ammunition now, artillery now. From the Danish side, we decided to donate our entire artillery. And I’m sorry to say friends there are still ammunitions in stock in Europe. This is not only a question about production because we have weapons, we have ammunitions, we have air defense that we don’t have to use ourselves at the moment that we should deliver to Ukraine.”
At this time, it remains unclear whether Frederiksen meant to say that Denmark will send all of its artillery pieces, artillery ammunition, or both. However, according to Danish-language media reports, all 19 of Denmark’s CAESAR self-propelled howitzers will be sent to Ukraine. These were previously slated to be delivered to Denmark over the upcoming six months.
The announcement comes as Ukraine continues to suffer from serious ammunition shortages. The US Congress is continuing to stall on Ukraine aid with some House Republicans mounting a significant challenge to the $95 billion aid package to Ukraine, Taiwan and Israel which has recently been approved by the Senate. Meanwhile, while European production capacity for artillery ammunition has grown by 40% since the Russian invasion began, its deliveries have fallen far short of official targets. Only 524,000 shells out of the one million promised last year to Ukraine by March 2024 are on schedule to be delivered.
The lack of shells is having a significant impact on military operations. Many commentators have argued that a lack of artillery shells has contributed to the Ukrainian withdrawal from the frontline town of Avdiivka. Speaking to the Associated Press, a number of Ukrainian artillery battery commanders have claimed that their units are receiving only around 10% of the ammunition they need each day.
Ukraine is also trying to address shortages through domestic industry. The 2S22 155mm self-propelled “Bohdana” artillery system has just entered serial production and there are ongoing talks about localizing production of the German Panzerfaust-3 hand-held anti-tank weapon within Ukraine.