Izvestia military correspondent filmed powerful DPR artillery attacks on nationalists

film crew “Izvestia” managed to see the artillery battle of the 1st Army Corps of the People’s Militia of the DPR with the Armed Forces of Ukraine. And this is the very case when those DPR fighters who previously had nothing to do with the army are forced to fire. Details – in the material of Valentin Trushnin.

“We are at the positions of the artillery of the DPR, this is the Msta-B howitzer, which means towed. This is the most modern Soviet howitzer that is in service with the Donetsk People’s Republic. The caliber is 152 millimeters, the range of aimed fire is 24 kilometers. The long barrel ensures high accuracy “Now the gun is disguised, but ready for battle. The command to kill can come at any second”– reports the military commander.

The breaks between shooting are only a few minutes. Then coordinates come in from aerial reconnaissance, and the battery fires several shells at an invisible target, and so – the whole day.

Then the gun is again masked and waiting for a new command. Combat crews are staffed by local, Donetsk. Almost all until 2014 had nothing to do with the army. The battery commander, for example, worked as an accountant – now this is his call sign. But over the years of the war and the special military operation, everyone became professional gunners. At the front, you learn quickly.

“We learned to survive, to fight in a new way, to adapt to the real conditions that we have,” says the howitzer battery commander with the call sign Accountant.

The commander of the gun is a former electrician, but we do not have time to talk with him.

“Directly during the recording of the interview, the command” to battle” sounded, the calculation receives the numbers,” – Trushnin showed.

On account of this battery, there are many broken enemy fortifications, burned equipment, there are even victories in artillery duels. This is the most difficult thing – to continue to fire when the enemy shells fall closer. The one with the strongest nerves wins.

“This is what I remember when our aerial reconnaissance spotted the enemy’s gun, it was just working on us, and we had to work in response. But we turned out to be more persistent, they abandoned the gun and drove off in a heavy vehicle, and we finished off their gun later “, – says the Accountant.

We were lucky: during the entire time we filmed the operation of the battery, there was no return fire from the APU. However, this can hardly be called luck. Camouflage, competent choice of position and opposition to enemy drones – all this leads to the fact that it is easier for Ukrainian artillerymen to shoot at the city than to conduct reconnaissance and get involved in duels.