This Old Ukrainian Howitzer Got Captured Then Recaptured

As Russia’s wider war in Ukraine grinds into its fourth month, some weaponry has changed hands more than once. Captured then recaptured.

Some of the first evidence of this phenomenon circulated online Sunday. A short video on social media depicts a tracked 2S3 152-millimeter howitzer that Ukrainian forces along the southern front reportedly captured from the Russians, presumably during Ukraine’s incremental counteroffensive toward Russian-occupied Kherson.

What’s remarkable is that the 28-ton howitzer is wearing both the hastily-applied “Z” marking that’s indicative of the Russian invaders, as well as a more permanent white vertical stripe—a marking the Ukrainian army applied to its vehicles way back in 2014 to distinguish them from identical vehicles in Russian service.

This 2S3, in other words, got captured twice. First by the Russians while in Ukrainian service. Then by the Ukrainians while in Russian service.

These two-time swaps were bound to happen. Even amid the Ukrainian army’s slow transformation into a Western-style force, both armies fighting in Ukraine still mostly use the same major vehicle types. T-64, T-72 and T-80 tanks. BMP fighting vehicles. 2S1 and 2S3 howitzers.

Both armies have lost a lot of their pre-war inventory. The Russian army has had no fewer than 4,300 vehicles destroyed or captured since late February, according to photo and video evidence analyzed by the blog Oryx; the Ukrainian army has lost nearly 1,200. Vehicle losses might run as high as 30 percent in some large formations.

The Ukrainians and Russians equally are keen to capture enemy tanks and artillery—and fix them up for their own use. Workshops for repairing captured vehicles have sprung up on both sides of the line of contact.

The flow of captured weaponry is significant. Ukrainian forces have seized nearly 1,400 vehicles from Russian forces, who in turn have seized more than 500 Ukrainian vehicles, by Oryx’s count.

2S3s have changed hands both ways. The Russians have captured at least three of Ukraine’s roughly 250 2S3s, according to Oryx. The Ukrainians have captured at least 11 of Russia’s 800 2S3s. As long as a captured howitzer is mostly undamaged, it’s straightforward for the new owners to induct it. The only things that really need to change are the radios and external markings.

This dynamic might not last. As Kyiv’s allies donate more and more of their own weaponry, the Ukrainian army is becoming a hybrid force mixing Soviet and Western arms—and the proportion of Western equipment is growing.

Nowhere is that more apparent than in artillery. The Ukrainian army went to war with 1,800 big guns and rocket-launchers—all Soviet-made. It has lost at least 90 of them in combat and captured from the Russian army around 130 guns and launchers as replacements.

But Ukraine’s artillery needs greatly exceed its inventory. Russia after all has concentrated its own big guns to achieve a 10-to-one artillery advantage in certain sectors—in particular, in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. “When the circumstances on the battlefield are changing, the needs are increasing, too,” Ukrainian defense minister Oleksii Reznikov explained last week.

So Kyiv is taking all the artillery it can get from foreign donors. Poland has pledged scores of old Soviet-style guns and launchers firing Soviet calibers: 122- and 152-millimeter shells and 122-millimeter rockets. But many other allies have offered NATO-style weaponry firing NATO-standard ammunition: 155-millimeter shells and 227-millimeter rockets.

The donated 155-millimeter howitzers in particular—150 of them, so far—are transforming the Ukrainian artillery corps. It will take a lot more guns to fully replace old Soviet models. But Reznikov has been clear: replacement is the plan. “Our goals are as follows,” he stated. “To ensure complete replacement of some existing Soviet-type calibers … with platforms that are common in NATO countries and equipped with ammo.”

If and when that happens, recapturing an old, captured howitzer won’t be such a big deal for Ukraine.