Bulgaria supplied weapons to Ukraine in 2025, and a number of systems, including T-72 tanks, MT-LBs, and artillery, may have reached the Ukrainian Defense Forces via third countries such as the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom. At the same time, the UN Register of Conventional Arms (UNROCA), which tracks arms imports and exports, contains an interesting hint as to where Ukraine’s 122mm D-30 towed howitzers may actually have come from.
According to the register, Bulgaria exported 38 D-30 howitzers to the Czech Republic last year, from where they appear to have been sent, or are intended to be sent, to Ukraine. That same year, Bulgaria imported 38 D-30 howitzers from Egypt, suggesting these artillery systems may have reached Ukraine through this elaborate two-step chain.
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D-30 howitzer of the Ukrainian Armed Forces / Open source photo
The explanation is fairly straightforward: neither Egypt nor Bulgaria was particularly keen on supplying heavy weapons to Ukraine directly. The result is that Egyptian D-30s appear to have reached Ukraine’s Defense Forces via at least two European countries.
Who paid for these transfers and how much the price of these howitzers may have inflated given at least two intermediaries in the chain remains an open question.
Egyptian D-30 mounted on a Ural truck chassis / Photo credit: Army Regognition
The 2024 UNROCA data adds further detail: Bulgaria imported as many as 72 D-30 howitzers from Egypt that year, while exporting six to the Czech Republic.
According to the Military Balance reference publication, as of 2025 Egypt operated 190 towed D-30M howitzers the designation used for Egypt’s locally produced variant of the Soviet D-30 though little information on this version is available in open sources.
Egypt has also experimented with various self-propelled configurations based on the D-30. These include a truck-mounted variant on the Ural-4320 chassis, as well as the SP-122 an integration of the D-30 howitzer onto the hull of the American M109 self-propelled gun.
According to Military Balance, Egypt operated 124 SP-122 units as of last year.