They come in twos or threes, dare you to shoot and dig holes like moles. Many of them lose their lives in the process. Ukrainian soldiers pay attention to the new way of operating of the Russians. The grueling fight turns to their advantage. Ukrainians are not giving up their weapons, but emphasize that their opponents have more ammunition.
In a hut, hidden in the middle of a small forest at the back of the front line, a Ukrainian soldier turns on the generator: after a while, a red garland, not much larger than a chain, begins to sparkle with colors. This is the only sign that the New Year has arrived.
After the Russian air attack on December 29, 2023, the most massive since the beginning of the war, holiday days throughout Ukraine turned into subsequent days of mourning. More cities are being attacked: Odessa, Kharkov, Lviv, Kiev… on an unprecedented scale.
Here, behind the front lines at the base of an artillery division within the 1st Armored Brigade, somewhere between Donbas and Zaporozhye in southeastern Ukraine, soldiers are preparing to return to combat.
They say that there is not a moment without a Russian attack, and the winter did not discourage the enemy at all. And they say that they are well acquainted with the unit they will have to face: for a year the fate of the war has been pitting them against each other in different places. Always the same two artillery divisions, Ukrainian on one side and Russian on the other.
When one of them is transferred to the front line, the other soon appears there. The previous winter, soldiers from both divisions had clashed in the Donbass , then in Izium in the east of the country, and finally in last year’s summer counteroffensive near Zaporozhye , before the capricious god of war sent them back to the Donbass with the first snowfall.
War in Ukraine. Duel with old ammunition
Both divisions fought using the same Soviet weapons – 2S3 Akacja self-propelled howitzers , old artillery guns dating back to World War II . Soldiers admit that they have to be constantly tinkered with to make them work at all.
This is a common sight on the Russian side. The Ukrainian unit is one of those that has not received any Western weapons and is therefore forced to use old stockpiles of equipment. In this endless duel between a handful of exhausted soldiers, we can see one of the key issues in war: competition for missiles. In addition to the supply of weapons, the supply of ammunition became a separate war.
– At the beginning of autumn 2023, we felt that the Russians were getting nervous. For many hours, during radio monitoring, they could be heard insulting each other, says a 35-year-old Ukrainian commander nicknamed Hitman.
At that time, Kiev for the first time reached the level of artillery fire equal to Moscow, which was much better equipped: about 10,000 rounds were fired on both sides of the front. bullets per day.
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As part of the counteroffensive, the Ukrainians managed to increase firepower, mainly thanks to supplies from abroad. On the other hand, the enemy troops had to reduce their fire by half: their arms production could hardly keep up with the needs and the pace of the early stages of the fighting.
But in November 2023, the Ukrainians noticed an increase in morale among their opponents. – We realized that they had been delivered missiles – sighs the youngest commander, a 23-year-old soldier nicknamed Little Rabbit.
In fact, Moscow managed to overcome production shortfalls and circumvent Western sanctions. North Korea also helped by providing Russia with much-needed missiles and missiles. All signals indicate that the Kremlin is preparing for a long war at all costs.
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– In our part of the front, the Russians receive ammunition from Iran – says Hitman. The man smiles vaguely and adds for consolation: “we overheard the Russians complaining about the poor quality of the ammunition, some of which exploded in their faces.”
Meanwhile, in recent weeks, Kiev has once again been struggling with a lack of resources for fighting, especially since Western partners are having difficulty delivering the promised supplies.