A beautiful, warm spring day on the eastern front of Ukraine. I am going to the artillerymen who are holding the defense in the Bakhmut area, supporting their infantry. The front is not happy about such weather – clear skies mean increased presence of enemy drones in them, and there are a lot of them here.
You can tell by the continuous sound of gunfire as Ukrainian soldiers try to shoot them down.
The front near Chasivyar, a town in the Donneck region near Bakhmut, is one of the hottest spots on the Donbas front, and Russian troops have stepped up their offensive here for the second month in an attempt to capture this small but strategically important town.
Chasivyara is the most important highland of the Donetsk region. If the Russian occupiers manage to capture it, the cities of Kostyantinivka, Druzhkivka and Kramatorsk, Sloviansla will be under the control of the enemy’s fire – this would be an advantageous springboard for the Russians to advance further to capture the entire Donetsk region. The enemy here continues to gather reserves – spares no resources, neither armaments, nor manpower.
“They use drones, guided bombs, artillery, rocket systems. Everything you can imagine,” says Oleksandr, a soldier in the artillery brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Defenders of Ukraine do not hide the situation is difficult – although the equipment supplied by Poland is good, that is, it shoots accurately and does not disappoint, at the moment it is more often forced to remain silent here.
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“(Question: How do you feel here at the front that the West is late with aid supplies?? We feel in the most direct sense, the shells are needed for us to hold our ground. The enemy is advancing and we must stop it. The shells are badly needed,” emphasizes Oleksandr.
The self-propelled howitzer available to the Ukrainian defenders, called the KRAB, fires 155 mm caliber rounds, which are currently in short supply at the front due to the delay in aid from the West, mainly the United States.
“(Question: How do you see the situation at this stage of the front?) I’ll be honest – it’s hard, and if we look objectively, it’s because we lack ammunition, and we all know why. If it was like it was last summer, the situation would be much better. We rarely work because there is simply nothing to do. Like at Avdiyivka, they use aviation here – a lot of aerial bombs. If we had airplanes, then everything would be great,” says Konstantin, a soldier of the artillery brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The Russians near Bakhmut continue to use the same tactics as in Avdiyivka – sending guided aerial bombs weighing from 250 kilograms to one and a half tons to Ukrainian positions. In such conditions, namely without ammunition and air support, it is extremely difficult to hold the defense, but the Ukrainians continue this fight, because everyone here says that there is nowhere to retreat.
