Slovakia postpones delivery of Zuzana 2 howitzers to its army to ship them to Ukraine
Slovakia will give priority to any further arms supplies to Ukraine. Therefore, it has postponed the delivery of eight Zuzana 2 howitzers to the Slovak Armed Forces, said press secretary of the Ministry of Defense of Slovakia Martina Koval Kakaščíková
"It is impossible to determine the time when the remaining eight Zuzana 2 howitzers will be delivered to the Armed Forces of the Slovak Republic, because if there are further orders for Ukraine, we will give priority to them," she said.
The purchase of 25 Zuzana 2 howitzers was approved by the government in 2018 during the tenure of Defense Minister Peter Gajdoš. The delivery date was postponed several times due to the pandemic. The last eight units were originally due to be delivered to Ukraine by mid-December 2022.
This week, the national defense holding Konstrukta - Defence, which is under the jurisdiction of the Slovak Defense Ministry, signed a contract for the commercial sale of eight Zuzana 2 howitzers to Ukraine.
Defense Minister Jaroslav Naď said the contract would give Konstrukta further growth opportunities. He sees this as a great success for the Slovak defence industry.
The Zuzana 2 self-propelled howitzer gun is an autonomous self-loading artillery system to provide artillery support for ground operations.