Slovakia will hand over 16 Zuzana howitzers to the Defense Forces and set up their production together with Ukraine

Slovakia will transfer 16 Zuzana 2 howitzers to Ukraine and set up the production of howitzers jointly with Ukraine.

This was reported by the President of Slovakia Zuzana Chaputova after talks with the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky.

"We are one of the countries that helped Ukraine militarily as well. We provided air defense equipment, we provided combat aircraft. And cooperation in this field gradually turns into cooperation in other fields. We managed to sign a contract for the supply of 16 Zuzanas to Ukraine, and this will happen in the very near future. We will jointly develop a new type of howitzers, joint production of ammunition will begin, and our enterprises will demine the territory of Ukraine," Chaputova noted.

According to her, Slovakia sees Ukraine as a promising member of the European Union.

"Recently, I hosted the summit of the eastern wing of the Alliance in Bratislava, and we agreed that Ukraineʼs perspective is the North Atlantic Alliance, and we also agreed that it is necessary to maintain and strengthen political and practical relations with Ukraine," the President of Slovakia declared.

• The Zuzana 2 is an upgraded version of the Zuzana 1 (which is also an upgrade of the Czechoslovak Dana system), designed and manufactured in Slovakia. As compared to the previous version, Zuzana 2 has a new, longer barrel of 52 calibers (previously 45 calibers), which allowed to increase the firing range to 41 kilometers. It is also equipped with a new armored cabin. In addition, the turret rotates 360 degrees (before it was only 60 degrees), and thanks to automation, the number of crew members has been reduced from four to three. The howitzer is self-loading and can fire 5 shots per minute.