It became known where Germany will get 120 thousand shells for Ukraine

The details of the agreement on the supply of more than hundreds of thousands of artillery munitions to Ukraine, announced by Germany, have become known.

Spiegel reported on this, citing sources in the German Ministry of Defense.

The journalists of the newspaper said that 120 thousand artillery rounds, announced by the German government on February 16 as part of a new military aid package, were ordered from Bulgaria.

According to the press release, all contracted Bulgarian ammunition is to be handed over to Ukraine in 2024.

General Christian Freuding, the head of the Bundeswehr’s Situation Center Ukraine, noted that there is no shortage of money. Germany has allocated about €7 billion for 2024 alone. The main problem remains the availability of ammunition on the world market.

“Unfortunately, artillery ammunition and anti-aircraft weapons are not widely available worldwide,” Freuding emphasized.

Bulgarian ammunition

122-mm artillery shells are Soviet-era ammunition. They are used in D-30 howitzers and 2S1 Gvozdika self-propelled howitzers, which are widely used in the Ukrainian army.

Bulgaria is a producer of shells of this caliber and one of the largest players on the world market in the Soviet weapons niche.

The main producer of these shells in Bulgaria is the Dunarit plant in Ruse. It produces a wide range of Soviet-era artillery ammunition, including 122-mm separate loading rounds.

However, due to the high demand for products caused by the Russian-Ukrainian war, Bulgaria is restoring other facilities that have been mothballed in recent decades.

At the end of 2023, it was announced that after 35 years of inactivity, the Bulgarian plant in the city of Kostenets, owned by the TEREM state holding, resumes production of 122mm shells. This plant ceased production of 122mm shells in 1988.

It is possible that with the new facilities, the new plant could have received a share of the German order for ammunition supplies for Ukraine.