| Caliber Requested | Comments |
| 7.62х39 mm | For the famous AK-47, AKA as "7.62 Commie" (maybe that's just me) or 7.62 Soviet. I've always fount it interesting that his cartridge has very similar ballistics to the .30-30 Winchester, my favorite general purpose round |
| 7.62x51 mm | American shooters will know this well, as the 7.62 NATO, cartridge can be virtually identical to .308 Winchester, though debate rages about whether it's "OK" to use the higher-pressure .308 in a 7.62 Rifle. And don't even get started on differing headspace dimensions and other minutia. In wartime, those debates would be mooted. |
| 7.62x54mm | Mostly iused in Dragunov rifles (which can be excellent precision guns, or sniper rifles in this context.) A cartridge with a long history, and shares a lot of the ballistic "range" with the 7.62 Nato and .308 |
| .308 WIN | Everyone knows this one. The basis of comparison of all of the other .30 cals |
| 5.45х39 mm | I've never shot or loaded this cartridge, but it's what feeds the Soviet AK-74, which was the moment in time that the Russkies seem to have lost their minds and copied the Americans who gave up their M14's for .22 Caliber Stoner designs. Never really caught on with the masses. The ballistics charts say it should be ballistically stable out to 600 yards though, so not bad. |
| 5.56х45 mm | Also well known to all, probably, but for the non-shottists, this is what you put through a military AR15 platform. The civilian version is the .223 Remington, which would work just fine in a rifle (or pistol for that matter) chambered for 5.56 NATO, but they don't seem to want any of the civilian stuff. |
| Sniper rifles chambered in .308 WIN or 7.62х51 mm and ammunition (including bipod and scope)If donating a non-.308 “sniper type” rifle, e.g., .338 Lapua or similar, Ukraine requests that manufacturers provide ammunition with the rifle. | Interesting that they ask for ammo for their Dragunovs, but no more of those. Guess they must have plenty of 'em. |
Pistols and ammunition chambered in 9х19 mm | They want the pistols, but don't ask for any 9mm Luger ammo. Again, they must have lots of it on hand, and the stuff is heavy to move around. |
Extra magazines | Well, this makes sense. You can't have too many magazines |
| Spare parts | Again, a sensible request |
Looks like what they really want are the .30 cal bolties with good scopes and tripods, but I guess that they're happy to take Keltec's .9mm pistol caliber rifles if that's what's on offer. FWIW, pistol calibers used in carbines or "rifles" as stated in this piece have always seemd to be a very specialized use case, and just don't make very good general-purpose pistol substitute being inconvieniently bigger, and aren't really very good "rifles" using as they do puny pistol cartridges. But the principle of "any port in a storm" may well apply here.
The little folding Kel-Tec Sub2Ks will probably be just dandy for posed propaganda photos. Obviously better than airsoft M4s, and more believable than a shotgun in the hands of a 9 year old...
;>)
I'm fine with all those cartridges, (except the 5.45х39 mm), when used in rifles designed for them, military cartridges in military rifles, civilian in civilian.
I, too, am particularly fond of the Winchester .30-.30.
The weapons requests are realistic, I wonder if KelTec will be selling those freely in the US, after the resolution of the conflict?