The Ukrainian military has released the first video showing them firing a 240 mm M-240 mortar, which before the war was considered to be in Ukraine only in a museum in Kyiv.

A 240 mm mortar was sent to the Ukrainian marinesPhoto: video recording – Paul Javin

The weapon got into the equipment of the 35th separate brigade of marines of Ukraine, recently they fired from it, which is visible thanks to the heavy snowfall, which was caught on video.

A photo of the M-240 mortar, which is in service with the Ukrainian military, appeared on social networks at the end of September last year, but this is the first video that confirms that the weapon is still functional.

When the photo appeared, the administrators of the Ukraine Weapons Tracker page noted that it was the first time that the “ancient but powerful” mortar was being used by Ukrainian troops.

“It is interesting that the M-240 was not known in Ukrainian warehouses, but a mortar of this type was exhibited in a museum in Kyiv,” Ukraine Weapons Tracker noted at the time.

What is known about this Soviet-made mortar

The M-240 mortar, which entered service with the Soviet armed forces in the 1950s, is believed to have been used for the first time on the battlefield during the Yom Kippur War, when it was used by the Syrian army, Russia’s traditional ally in the Middle East, against Israeli forces.

Later, such mortars were also used during the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan, the Libyan civil war and, more recently, the Syrian civil war, during which they were used by the forces of dictator Bashar al-Assad.

Before the start of the war in Ukraine and the appearance of these images in social networks, it was believed that only 4 countries still had M-240 mortars in the world: Russia, Bulgaria, Syria and Egypt. Romania also had a small number of M-240 mortars, which it destroyed in 1995.

Ukraine Weapons Tracker also noted last year that despite the weapon’s age, Ukraine’s arsenal contains an impressive amount of 240mm ammunition that can be fired from these mortars. Although many of the 240mm shells have been decommissioned, the rest are now in front-line use.

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