Ukraine will receive the first batch of heavy weapons from Germany around June 22, Ukrainian Ambassador to Berlin Andrey Melnyk told Ukraine’s Novoye Vremya newspaper on Friday. The delivery is expected to include seven PzH 2000 howitzers promised by German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht in early May, he added.
“We will get these systems around June 22,” Melnyk said, referring to the howitzers as he again criticized Berlin for being too slow with the arms shipments. The date named by the ambassador was the very day that Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union back in 1941. The USSR included both Ukraine and Russia at that time, and Ukraine was among the first Soviet territories attacked by the Nazis.