Russia plans to deploy howitzers in a military district along its border with Finland, which joined the NATO alliance earlier this year.
Since launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Kremlin has strengthened its military forces along its western border in response to Finland’s bid to join NATO.
Russia’s state-run TASS news agency announced that tests of the Union SV howitzer have been completed.
Sergei Chemezov, head of the Russian defense conglomerate Rostec, suggested that howitzers could soon appear along the Finnish border.
Chemezov told TASS: “I think that this class of howitzers will soon appear there (in the Northern Military District), since it is necessary that they have an advantage over Western artillery models in terms of range.”
These howitzers have a range of 70 kilometers (44 miles) and a rate of fire of more than 10 rounds per minute.
This comes after the Russian military confirmed that one of its warships had been destroyed by the Ukrainian Air Force in the Black Sea. Photos and videos showed the explosion sending a huge fireball into the air.
Ukraine reported an airstrike on the Crimean port city of Feodosia.
Ukrainian Air Force Commander Mykola Oreshchuk said the airstrike destroyed a Russian navy ship known as the Novocherkassk landing ship.
Sergei Aksyonov, the Russian governor-designate of Crimea, said one person was killed and two others injured in the Ukrainian airstrike.
Videos shared on various Russian news platforms showed violent explosions and fires in the region of about 69,000 people.