Ukraine this week appealed to Germany because of problems with the operation of Panzerhaubitze 2000 self-propelled artillery units. This was reported by Spiegel.

According to the newspaper's sources, the electronics of some of the seven howitzers handed over by Germany in late June began to produce errors after intensive use.

The Bundeswehr believes that the problems are due to the high density of fire - because of this the shell loading mechanism is under considerable strain: while the PzH 2000 is designed to fire 100 shells per day, the Ukrainians probably used many more of them.

Spiegel's sources consider another reason for the breakdown of the howitzers to be that the Ukrainian military tried to shoot at targets located at too great a distance.

The German side, after Ukraine's request, agreed to immediately allocate spare parts to solve the problems. The Bundeswehr understands that the malfunctions were unavoidable because of the need for heavy fire against Russian forces.

In addition, the German federal government is negotiating the creation of a repair center for its equipment in Poland - the necessary spare parts could be delivered there faster, and other countries could participate in its work as well.

Also, according to Spiegel, during tests of the Gepard tanks, which Germany is preparing to transfer to Ukraine, a problem arose: they do not recognize Norwegian-made shells and additional tests are planned in August.