Two Polish defense firms have agreed to work together on preparing production of Ukraine's Bohdana self-propelled howitzer, Ukrainian military outlet Militarnyi reported. One will build the gun and the other the truck it rides on. The deal deepens a Polish-Ukrainian venture set up last year to make the weapon in Poland.
Russia keeps pushing along the front line in Donbas while striking Ukraine's cities and the factories that arm its troops. Ukraine has answered by building more of its own weapons and moving production underground. Its Bohdana howitzer went from one gun in 2022 to 40 a month by October 2025, a figure that likely counts towed versions too. A production line in Poland would add a factory for it outside Ukraine, in a NATO country.
A gun maker and a truck builder
PK MIL and Szczęśniak Pojazdy Specjalne signed a memorandum of understanding on 11 September 2026, company representatives told Militarnyi. They did it at MSPO, Poland's international defense industry fair in Kielce. The aim is cooperation on preparing production of the 155-mm wheeled Bohdana.
PK MIL will handle the artillery part. Szczęśniak will bring its experience in designing special vehicles, integrating truck chassis, and adapting them to military needs. The company, based in Bielsko-Biała in southern Poland, started out building fire trucks in 1992 and now turns out about six vehicles a week.
The partners also plan for life after delivery. “From the very start, we assume that in the future the two companies' cooperation will also include solutions that allow servicing, repairs, and operational support of these machines directly at the end users,” said Marek Warzecha, chairman of PK MIL's management board.
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From Kramatorsk to Poland
PK MIL itself is a joint venture. Poland's PONAR Wadowice and Ukraine's Kramatorsk Heavy Machine Tool Plant set it up in October 2025, with the Polish side holding 51% of the shares. The plans became public in March 2026. The venture intends to build both the self-propelled Bohdana and its towed version, Bohdana-BG.
The Ukrainian partner's home city is under fire. Kramatorsk sits about 15 km from the front line, and a Russian airstrike destroyed its city executive committee building on 31 October. The Kramatorsk plant said last year it could build at least 30 Bohdanas a month, a company representative told European Security & Defence.
Production in Poland is also seen as a way into international markets, with possible buyers in Poland and other European countries, Militarnyi wrote.
More than 600 guns on four kinds of truck
Ukraine had built more than 600 Bohdanas by March 2026, and the guns are in heavy use at the front. To raise output, Ukrainian makers mastered several versions of the gun on different wheeled chassis. By January 2026, the Bohdana was built on four types of truck, so output no longer hinges on one vehicle supplier. A December 2025 agreement with Germany plans 200 more on new Zetros chassis.
Industry ties as politics strain
The deal became public as relations between Warsaw and Kyiv sour over WWII history. A source in Ukraine's government said Poland paused a military aid package after Lviv's regional council honored the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, a WWII nationalist force. Poland's Defense Ministry denied the report.
Progress on a sore point for Ukraine and Poland: remains of over 40 Ukrainians killed by Polish WWII units found in Łasków
Poland holds the force responsible for mass killings of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia in 1943–1944.
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