Petro Poroshenko handed over PGOF-40 grenades to the Armed Forces of Ukraine

21 June, 2023 PGOF-40 40x53mm grenades of the Ukrainian military. June 2023. Ukraine.

Photo credits: Yurii Biriukov The Defense Forces of Ukraine received a large batch of Ukrainian PGOF-40 40x53mm grenades. Volunteer Yurii Biriukov shared that Petro Poroshenko, the fifth President of Ukraine, handed over 6072 such grenades.

It is noted that the grenades were at one time produced at an enterprise owned by Petro Poroshenko. Grenades are transferred to specially trained drone operators. The launch of the production of Ukrainian PGOF-40 grenades was announced back in 2018.

Boxes with PGOF-40 40x53mm grenades. June 2023, Ukraine. Photo credits: Yurii Biriukov

The mass production of ammunition for a 40mm automatic grenade launcher was executed by the Impulse enterprise together with the Kuznia na Rybalskomu enterprise.

At the same time, the assembly of such ammunition is mostly done manually. The PGOF-40 40x53mm high-explosive grenade meets NATO standards for automatic grenade launcher ammunition.

Compared to the 30mm grenades currently used in most automatic grenade launchers in service with the Ukrainian army, the 40mm grenade has more power and fragment spans. In addition, Impulse, together with Kuznia na Rybalskomu, then mastered the production of VOG-25V, designed for firing with under-barrel grenade launchers for machine guns in service with Ukraine.

PGOF-40, PGI-40, and VOG-25V HE-frag grenades. Photo credits: Ukroboronprom

In 2019, Impulse opened a new production facility with a hundred computerized high-tech machinery and equipment to produce the detonator components.

In 2022, the Armed Forces of Ukraine started using Mark 19 40mm automatic grenade launchers of American production.