Ukraine acknowledges it has lost nearly all Soviet-era mortars during the war in the Donbas
The Ukrainian Defense Ministry claimed that during the fighting in the Donbas, they used up nearly their entire stockpile of mortar weapons, which Ukraine had kept since Soviet times.
According to UNIAN, this was reported by the Chief of Armaments of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Mykola Shevtsov at a briefing in Kyiv. "The question of supplying our troops with exactly this kind of weapon is the most urgent,” he said “as during the aggressive hostilities we lost almost our entire arsenal of mortars which was inherited from the times of the USSR."
According to Shevtsov, many of the mortars were either damaged or defunct, which is why production of domestic mortar samples is being set up in Ukraine now. In particular, the Mayak factory in Kyiv has already produced about 200 Ukrainian-made Molot (Hammer) mortars and given them to the army. Their tests continue.
Shevtsov also added that Ukraine tried to find ways to acquire mortars from abroad, but were unable to finalize any deals during negotiations.