U.S. Sends Deadly Artillery Systems To Kiev

Pentagon Quietly Deployed Deadliest Artillery Shell in US’s Inventory to Ukraine: Report

Sputnik News

Moscow, officials from the Donbass republics, and even the regional administrations of Ukrainian territories liberated by Russian forces have repeatedly charged Kiev with the use of its Western-sourced artillery systems to indiscriminately target civilian infrastructure.

The Pentagon has committed $92 million to replenish the US military’s stocks of the M982 Excalibur, a 155mm artillery shell with an effective firing range of up to 57 km, Bloomberg has reported, citing a DoD accounting document.

The $92 million was spent “for the procurement of replacement M982 Excalibur munitions transferred to Ukraine in support of the international effort to counter Russian aggression,” the document said.

If Bloomberg’s reporting is accurate, the document is the first direct confirmation that Washington is supplying the shells to Kiev, with US officials previously remaining tightlipped or wriggling their way out of direct answers to media questions on the matter.

Apart from the US, Canada is the only other NATO power to have sent Excaliburs to Ukraine, with Ottawa announcing in April that an unknown number of the shells would be gifted to Kiev alongside four pieces of field artillery.

Manufactured by Raytheon and BAE Systems, the Excalibur is equipped with a GPS guidance system enabling it to hit within 2-4 meters of its intended target, and can be used by a variety of self-propelled and towed howitzers and field guns, including the M109, M198, M777, and the PzH2000 – all of which have been sent to Ukraine in recent months.

Moscow has slammed Washington and its allies over their arms deliveries to Kiev, pointing to the danger they pose in escalating the Ukraine crisis, setting the stage for future conflicts, and facilitating lucrative weapons smuggling operations by criminal groups. 

The Russian military and the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Militias and civilian administrators in the Donbass, Kherson and Zaporozhye have also accused Kiev of using the precision weaponry it receives from the West to indiscriminately shell residential infrastructure. On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that the Ukrainian military’s constant shelling of the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant threatens to unleash a nuclear catastrophe.