"Sometimes, when you fall asleep, you hear cannons roaring. It's like a lullaby when you fall asleep to it," says air assault trooper Bohdan, who is used to shelling in the Donetsk region.
Together with other gunners, he hits enemy targets in the Bakhmut direction.
"It's a war of attrition now. First of all, it's about who will run out of ammo first," says the unit's commander, Viacheslav. That's why he names ammunition depots as his most important targets. As part of the 80th Air Assault Brigade, gunners are helping to hold the supply route to Bakhmut.
In late March, Hromadske spent two days with the brigade's anti-aircraft and artillery units. During these days, it unexpectedly snowed in the east of Ukraine. But the military continued to watch the skies.
"Air defense plays a crucial part because this is a modern war, unlike in World War II, not just ten years ago. Aviation and UAVs, which collect intelligence on the enemy's territory, play a big role now. Without intelligence, it's hard to seek and locate the enemy's artillery and personnel deployment," explains Mykhailo, an anti-aircraft unit commander. His unit is armed with a Soviet Strela-10 short-range surface-to-air missile system. Although it can shoot down drones, Mykhailo admits he'd rather use modern hardware, such as the German self-propelled anti-aircraft gun "Gepard."
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From the first minutes of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, hromadske has been working 24/7, thoroughly checking every news item in the information space. We film in hotspots and translate our content into Russian, English, and German. We record the crimes of the Russian occupation army to protect Ukraine and show the world the truth.
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14 апр 2023
