The Ukrainian army’s rarest artillery played a pivotal role in finally driving Russian troops off strategic Snake Island in the western Black Sea.
The sole 2S22 dealt the decisive blow. But the gun can’t protect Ukrainian troops on the island. As long as the Black Sea Fleet controls the waters around Ukraine, Snake Island might remain a shell-pocked no-man’s-land.
The 28-ton 2S22 has a major advantage over the Ukrainian army’s roughly 1,800 ex-Soviet guns. The new howitzer fires NATO-standard 155-millimeter shells rather than Soviet-standard 122-millimeter or 152-millimeter shells—allowing it to tap into foreign ammunition stocks. Officials at the Kramatorsk factory prepared to blow up the 2S22. “Destroy it so that [it] does not go to the enemy,” is how Ukrainian politician Serhiy PashynskyiBut the Russian offensive met stiff resistance and ground to a halt—first in the south, then in the north. For the 2S22, the risk of capture faded.
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