All news

Ukrainian POW exposes poor battlefield performance of NATO-supplied Javelins, NLAWs

He also revealed that some weapon batches contained anti-armor systems whose service life had expired

MOSCOW, May 5. /TASS/. The much-touted Javelin and NLAW man-portable anti-tank missile systems supplied by NATO countries to Ukraine have performed poorly on the battlefield and created numerous setbacks, a captured Ukrainian POW said in a video released by Russia’s Defense Ministry on Thursday.

"US military aid, to my mind, has been overhyped because the much-touted ATWS [anti-tank weapon systems] and grenade launchers, their Javelins and NLAWs that were heavily promoted, failed to prove their worth in practice. They suffered setbacks, with normally one out of four weapons firing and instances of duds or blasts 50 meters away from the target," the Ukrainian POW said.

Some weapon batches contained anti-armor systems whose service life had expired and spent storage batteries, he added.

"Some weapons had storage batteries with an expired service life while most batches indicated years past expiration dates," the Ukrainian POW revealed.

Ukrainian servicemen were also trained at proving grounds to learn to operate NATO anti-armor weapon systems, he said.