New Delhi: Ukraine is reportedly getting munition supply from an unlikely source — Pakistan.
Yes, it seems to be the case if one goes by the videos of long range artillery shells, manufactured by Pakistan Ordnance Factory Board, being unpacked in Ukraine.
Adding another angle to the development is the information put out by defence journalist Elizabeth Gosselin-Malo, who has pointed out that an aircraft belonging to the UK’s Royal Air Force has been departing twice daily for over three weeks via Cyprus or Romania to pick military supplies from an air force base in Pakistan.
1. Unconfirmed but developing thread: since Aug 6, the #UK's RAF C-17 ZZ173 has been doing nearly daily flights to #Pakistan's Air Force base Nur Khan in Rawalpindi departing from #Romania or Cyprus. This past week alone it completed 6 trips according to @TheBrit96. pic.twitter.com/4TyIzVZxXa
— elisabethgmalo (@elisabethmalom1) August 17, 2022
The consignment, she said, was being delivered to the Ukrainian army. The supplies were being loaded at Pakistan’s Nur Khan Air Force Base in Rawalpindi Punjab.
According to the Twitter handle, Ukraine Weapons Tracker – an account that tracks usage and capture of military equipment and materials in Ukraine – the daily trips by the RAF C-17 Globemaster were to secure supplies of 122mm Howitzer Projectiles, manufactured by the state-owned Pakistan’s Ordnance Factory for Ukraine’s military.
The 122 mm projectiles are semi-fixed ammunition for the Howitzer, which are long-range artillery weapons.
The account said that Pakistan was part of an air bridge for supplying weapons to Ukraine. The projectiles have been identified as Pakistani by their “distinct British-origin packaging widely used by Pakistan Ordnance Factory and then LIU-4 fuzes, unique to Pakistani 122mm,” added Ukraine Weapons Tracker.
#Ukraine: The massive needs of the Ukrainian Army when it comes to artillery are being met from some unorthodox sources- Ukrainian artillerymen were spotted using 122mm HE artillery projectiles made by Pakistani Ordnance Factories (POF) 🇵🇰. pic.twitter.com/Uu8X1zT6wi
— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) August 30, 2022
Ukraine’s Weapon Tracker claimed that the projectiles could have been manufactured “explicitly for export to Ukraine”.
Pakistan-Russia military ties
The ammunition supplies to Ukraine come at a time when Pakistan-Russia relations were growing. Former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan had landed in Moscow on the day Russia started its invasion of Ukraine in February. “What a time I have come, so much excitement,” Khan had said.
Imran Khan in Russia as Russia invades Ukraine: What a time I have come, so much excitement pic.twitter.com/9T3SuU9KFA
— Yusuf Unjhawala 🇮🇳 (@YusufDFI) February 24, 2022
Russia and Pakistan, in 2015, had signed a deal for four Mi-35 M attack helicopters, which has already been delivered. The following year, Russia and Pakistan carried out their first joint military exercise.
Last year in October, the militaries of the two countries also held joint training exercises called ‘Druzhba-VI’, in the Krasnodar region in southern Russia.
The growing ties was a concern to the Indian establishment forcing the Russians in 2019 to clarify that it will not sell any weapons to Pakistan.
However, Pakistan and Ukraine’s military ties go back nearly three decades. According to data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Ukraine has supplied weapons worth nearly $1.6 billion to Pakistan till 2020. In the 1990s, Ukraine supplied 320 T-84UD tanks to Pakistan for a deal worth $600 million.
Ammunitions include 15,300-m range projectile
The Pakistan Ordnance Factory Board’s catalogue for 2021 provides the details of the 122mm Howitzer Projectiles being sent to Ukraine.
The projectile has a muzzle velocity of 690 metres per second and a maximum range of 15,300 metres.
The projectile weighs over 21 kilograms, and its shell is made of complete forged steel. Its fuze is an LIU-4 type, essentially a high-voltage fuse. The complete weight of the round, including the projectile and shell, is over 28 kilograms.
Further, it has a detonation capability of 2500 kilograms per centimetre, which is essentially a ratio of the weight of the explosive with the explosion volume.
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