Mirror: https://archive.is/2025.03.02-204735/https://www.lefigaro.fr/international/ukraine-dissuasion-nucleaire-depenses-militaires-les-pistes-d-emmanuel-macron-pour-pousser-le-reveil-europeen-20250302

But above all, the French head of state is trying to draw up European initiatives to ensure that the Old Continent is not crushed by the new Washington-Moscow entente. First and foremost, the Franco-British plan drawn up with the host of Sunday’s meeting, Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Emmanuel Macron does not believe in a ceasefire signed between the Americans and Russians, convinced that Vladimir Putin will seek above all to humiliate Ukraine, notably by demilitarizing it. As an alternative, he and Starmer have put on the table a “truce in the air, on the seas and energy infrastructures” that would last a month. Advantage: “We know how to measure it. Today’s front line is the equivalent of the Paris-Budapest line. In the event of a ceasefire, it would be very difficult to check that the front was being respected,” explains the Chairman.

Translated via DeepL

  • Successful_Try543@feddit.org
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    7 hours ago

    According to Wikipedia, Ukraine has got 90 M109 units of different variants in service as of 2024.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/M109_howitzer#Current

    If you’ve got a better or more accurate source, you’re welcome.

    Also, not every unit of an amoured vehicle that has been made inoperable due to a hit by an explosive is really ‘destroyed’ without the option of repair with reasonable amount of work.

    • miskOP
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      7 hours ago

      Italy alone donated 100+ but their deliveries are not public so we can only track it via sources like Oryx.

      • Successful_Try543@feddit.org
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        6 hours ago

        We can at least assume, there is an upper limit of 150 M109L units: 221 (originally bought) +62 (bought from Switzerland) -123 (sold to Pakistan) -10 (sold to Djibuti)

        BTW: How did we end up talking about artillery, as your initial statement was about air defence missiles?

        • miskOP
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          4 hours ago

          You mentioned pzh2000 as an independent system and I replied with the number delivered is small to consider from Ukrainian perspective. The issue is probably even more complex because there’s also guided shells that actually enable longer ranges on those artillery pieces but honestly I don’t have the faintest idea what Ukraine is using these days.

          • Successful_Try543@feddit.org
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            2 hours ago

            The information I could find, e.g. on Wikipedia seems to confirm that only few PzH-2000 were lost, but a lot units are undergoing maintenance, as there is lots of wear on the loading mechanism and the lock, as the Ukrainians are “going the extra mile” and pushing the PzH-2000 to it’s limits in order to stay out of reach of the russians while operating. This indicates that they are using the EFRB-BB ammunition with 40 km maximum reach and the rocket extended V-LAP ammunition allowing 56 km reach. As I understood, these can not be used in M109 howitzers below the A5 variant. They are limited to ~24/30 km reach. Also the shoot and scoot ability of the modern howitzers is also an advantage to the older M109 variants before A6 “Paladin”. (Ukraine got 18 M109A6 “Paladin” units from the US.) Therefore, the relative losses of M109 units are significantly higher than those of the modern howitzers (PzH-2000, AHS Krab, Zuzana 2, DITA, CAESAR, Archer, AS-90)

            https://www.merkur.de/politik/verschleiss-deutsche-panzerhaubitze-2000-waffenlieferungen-ersatzteile-ukraine-krieg-zr-93291864.html