Ukrainian servicemen of the 80th Independent Air Assault Brigade fire a Howitzer D-30 artillery weapon towards Russian troops near the frontline town of Bakhmut, Donetsk region, Ukraine, February 24. REUTERS/Marko Djurica
El Pais: Ukraine outgunned 10 to 1 in massive artillery battle with Russia
Kyiv urgently requires ammunition as the Kremlin seeks a breakthrough on the eastern front, where Moscow is sending waves of infantry to deplete the defenders’ stocks of heavy shells
The Ukraine war has become a ferocious battle dominated by artillery and Ukrainian forces are operating at a huge disadvantage: Russia has numerical superiority of 10 heavy guns to every one at the disposal of Kyiv. Furthermore, Ukraine is running low on ammunition and requires urgent supplies of shells, Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s government has warned.
On the Luhansk front, at one of the Ukrainian army’s advanced positions in the area around the occupied city of Kreminna where the fighting is particularly intense, an artillery brigade is busy tuning a TRF1 howitzer cannon installed amid their sodden trenches. They received the French 155mm gun a few months ago and it is proving key to repelling Russian troops. But as the war enters its second year, Kyiv is in desperate need of fresh materiel. “We need more; we need all the ammunition they can provide. And we need it now,” says Sergey, the brigade commander, anchored next to the cannon in the mud.
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WNU editor: My father commanded an artillery unit in the Second World War. He always credited Soviet artillery as the reason why Germany was defeated on the Eastern front. And the stats back my father. In the last two years of that war, artillery strikes accounted for 70% of all combat casualties. I suspect the same thing is happening right now in the Russia - Ukraine war.
You can thank winter
ReplyDeleteSomebody wake me up when:
ReplyDelete1. Russia figures out how to do combined arms with professional soldiers. That old saying, "the job will teach you how to do it" is not a successful strategy for a professional army. Oh, right, that takes years to set up.
2. Russia relearns how to run a conscription army with a pistol-wielding commissar leading Komsomol-brainwashed soldiers. Oh, right, that also takes years to set up. You have to start that when children start school.
The Western Ukrainians have done so well because they actually have been brainwashing their children since 2014, much like the Finns since 1917. At this point, Russia is 8 years behind the Moral Warfare mobilization schedule.
The only hope of this not becoming a frozen conflict like Korea is if China uses North Korea to help Russia the same way NATO used Pakistan to help the mujaheddin, and that's not going to happen because the Norks are no more China's friends than the Pakistanis are NATO's friends.
You can learn combined arms on the fly. At least that is what I read about the Russo-Finnish War of 1939.
ReplyDeleteAt least Russians can learn when they are not having gay sex.
Top Russian Scientist Who Created Sputnik COVID Vaccine is Strangled to Death at Home – Suspect Arrested, Served Time for Sex Crimes
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IT seems like the russkis have mastered the art of brute force and ignorance. It does have a place in this world. I guess we will find out sometime in the near future how well it works against an opponent that doesn't want to die for the "motherland", i.e NATO troops. not wanting to die can make people clever.
ReplyDeleteUkrainians on the other hand, we have convinced ourselves, want to die in the name of big box stores, fast food, and reality TV. It's the only way we can sleep at night.
ReplyDeleteWhen you have a 10 to 1 advantage in artillery you dont need combined arms with professional soldiers to come in and mop up whats left....which is nothing. All you need is time and artillety rounds. Russia has a huge advantage in both.
ReplyDelete