A senior US Defense Department official said at a Pentagon press briefing on Monday that the US-supplied 155 mm M777 towed howitzers are proving very effective against Russian forces in the war in Ukraine.
“You’re already seeing the Ukrainians being willing to go on the counteroffensive in the Donbas. They are taking back some towns that the Russians have taken in the past,” the official said.
“We do believe that the howitzers … are having an impact, particularly in Kharkiv. Now is that the only reason? I don’t think we would go that far to say that, but we do believe that the systems they’re getting — not just the U.S. systems but the systems from other countries — are absolutely helping them regain some momentum and to take back some territory.”
On 15 May, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III spoke with Ukraine Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov. Reznikov told Austin that 74 of the 90 M777 artillery cannons that the U.S. supplied Ukraine are forward in the fight, providing long-range, indirect fire capability, the official said, noting that the tubes are being used not only in the Kharkiv area but elsewhere in the Donbas.
