Last month, South Korea agreed to lend the US 500,000 155 mm artillery shells, which might allow Washington more flexibility to provide Ukraine with ammunition, according to South Korea’s Tonga Ilbo.
According to the article, which claimed anonymous government sources, South Korea decided to “lend” the weapons rather than sell them to lessen the probability that its missiles would be deployed in the conflict in Ukraine. The article also referenced unnamed official sources.
The bombs that have been leased will reportedly be used to replace the United States stockpiles in most cases, as stated in the article.
The United States government bought 100,000 missiles from South Korea the previous year. In February, the United States administration wanted to acquire the same number of bombs or perhaps more of them; however, the cabinet of South Korea decided to find another way to send the weapons to its alliance partner.
There has been no comment forthcoming from the American side as of yet.
Yonhap reports that South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin told reporters that he could not substantiate the newspaper’s allegation but that the South Korean government will not deliver lethal military help to Ukraine. Park Jin’s comments were reported to have been made in response to questions from Yonhap.
Since Russia’s invasion began on February 24, 2022, the United States has provided Ukraine with staggering military aid. According to the Defense Department, the United States supplied Ukraine with over 800,000 155mm artillery ammunition between March and September. From September 28 to October 28, an additional 100,000 shells were donated. The production capacity for September was only 14,400 cartridges.
In March 2023, it was reported that due to the unwillingness or inability of some US allies to provide sufficient ammunition for Ukraine, the US military is drawing from its munition stocks in Israel, South Korea, Germany, and Kuwait, among other locations. These locations, known as prepositioned stocks, are where the United States stores everything from trucks to bandages to support American forces around the globe.
The first withdrawal of munitions from these facilities was scheduled for 2022, according to US congressional officials.
The United States has provided approximately 160 howitzers that fire 155-millimetre artillery ammunition to Kyiv.
