Bratislava will supply Kiev with eight Zuzana 2 howitzers to “help innocent Ukrainians in their difficult fight” against Russia, Slovakia’s Defense Ministry announced on Thursday.
Sending the self-propelled artillery systems to Ukraine is “a responsible gesture for Slovakia as a neighboring country,” the ministry said in a Facebook post.
Despite using the word “help,” it pointed out that the howitzers would be supplied as part of a commercial contract, meaning that Kiev will have to pay for the hardware. The value of the deal hasn’t been disclosed.
The Zuzana 2, which evolved from the former Czechoslovakia’s DANA system, passed trials with the Slovakian military in 2009.