RIGHT SPEAK: The War in UKRaine is Also a Giant Arms Fair; RUssia Accuses UKR’s Western Allies of Helping Attack its Black Sea Fleet HQ; UKR’s Rationale for Retaking Bakhmut; UKR’s Forces Advance On Donetsk Axis, LIVE UPDATES and MORE

Serhii Korovayny for The Wall Street Journal

WSJ: The War in Ukraine Is Also a Giant Arms Fair:

Arms makers are getting orders for weapons being put to the test on the battlefield

The Ukrainian crew of a high-tech German artillery system can shoot three shells within seconds that will simultaneously hit the exact same spot more than 25 miles away.

That is, when the big gun hasn’t broken down.

The Panzerhaubitze howitzer is part of an arsenal of weapons being put to the test in Ukraine in what has become the world’s largest arms fair.

Companies that make the weapons being used in Ukraine have won orders and resurrected production lines. The deployment of billions of dollars worth of equipment in a major land war has also given manufacturers and militaries a unique opportunity to analyze the battlefield performance of weapons, and learn how best to use them.

For all the Panzerhaubitze’s technical prowess, the war has shown the importance of being able to fix weapons on the battlefield. A simpler howitzer, the M777, has proven more reliable, but also more vulnerable to attack.

Debate around the performance of the two howitzers, and many other weapons, could help shape military procurement for years to come. At a major arms fair in London this month, exhibitors said they were frequently asked about the performance of their weapons in Ukraine.

The U.S. and European nations have sent billions of dollars worth of equipment to Ukraine from existing military stockpiles, and countries are now starting to replace some of that inventory amid a broader rise in military spending. Global military spending rose for the eighth consecutive year in 2022 to a record high of $2.24 trillion, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, a think tank.

Artillery guns and the shells they fire, drones, missile-defense systems and multiple-rocket launchers are all heavily used in Ukraine. Some of this equipment—made by the likes of BAE Systems, Rheinmetall, Lockheed Martinand RTX, formerly known as Raytheon Technologies—is now receiving orders or interest from potential buyers, arms makers say.

“People are looking at Ukraine and seeing what’s working,” said Tom Arseneault, the chief executive of the U.S. operations of BAE Systems.

The British defense giant says it is in talks with Kyiv about making its L119 artillery gun in Ukraine after it has proved useful and that orders for the shells used in the country have ramped up. The company also says it has received increased inquiries for its CV90 combat vehicle and the M777 based on their performance in the war. --->READ MORE HERE

Planet Labs via AP

Russia accuses Ukraine’s Western allies of helping attack its Black Sea Fleet headquarters:

Russia on Wednesday accused Ukraine’s Western allies of helping plan and conduct last week’s missile strike on the Black Sea Fleet’s headquarters on the annexed Crimean Peninsula.

“There is no doubt that the attack had been planned in advance using Western intelligence means, NATO satellite assets and reconnaissance planes and was implemented upon the advice of American and British security agencies and in close coordination with them,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing.

Moscow has repeatedly claimed that the U.S. and its NATO allies have effectively become involved in the conflict by supplying weapons to Ukraine and providing it with intelligence information and helping plan attacks on Russian facilities.

Unconfirmed news reports said Storm Shadow missiles provided to Ukraine by the U.K. and France were used in the attack on the headquarters.

There was no comment from the U.K. Ministry of Defense, which in the past has declined to discuss intelligence-related matters.

The accusation came as new video reported to show that the fleet’s commander, Adm. Viktor Sokolov, was still alive despite Ukraine’s claims — without providing supporting evidence — that he was among 34 officers killed in Friday’s strike on the port city of Sevastopol. --->READ MORE HERE