Comment ZAPORIZYA REGION, Ukraine — Ali Pirbudagov’s guns are parked under the cover of trees and camouflage netting. They are all older than him, dating back to when Ukraine and Russia fought together in the Red Army. Now, Pirbudagov must use them against the attacking Russian troops with more modern equipment. “This particular one is from 1987,” said Pirbudagov, 34, as he rubbed the hood of a 2S1 Gvozdika self-propelled howitzer. “There are older ones. This is actually one of the ‘newer’ tracks.” While Western countries have started sending better weapons Ukraine, they may be late arriving, leaving some units, such as Pirbudagov’s 128th Separate Mountain Assault Brigade, to fight the remnants of the Soviet era. They require a lot of repair, he said, and parts that aren’t easy to find. On the other side of the front line, Pirbudagov’s enemy often uses the same type of shell, but is 15 years younger and has a larger weapon. New artillery systems tend to go to artillery brigades or higher priority locations, such as the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine, where the fighting has been heaviest. But the disparity between military units is also a result of Ukraine still waiting for many of the promised weapons. The United States and Germany, for example, had delivered less than half of their announced military aid as of July 1, according to data from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, which tracks countries’ contributions and arms deliveries to Ukraine. While Ukrainian officials are grateful for any security assistance — Washington alone has provided more than $8 billion since the beginning of the Biden administration, with billions more to come — They have also expressed frustration at the delays during a critical juncture in the war when Moscow appears vulnerable. Richard Moore, the head of Britain’s intelligence agency, said last week that Russia was likely to “run out of steam” in the coming weeks amid shortages in manpower and hardware. The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, noted the “extreme difficulty that Russian forces regularly face in capturing small and relatively insignificant pieces of terrain during weeks or months of fighting. These restrictions will increase as Russian units continue to degrade during attacks on small villages.” With Russian troops deployed along a vast front spanning most of Ukraine’s eastern and southern borders, the Ukrainians have had the most success reclaiming territory along the southern axis — a counteroffensive crucial to improving Ukraine’s position in any future negotiations to end the conflict. But Pirbudagov and other soldiers in his self-propelled artillery unit near the front line in the southeastern Zaporizhia region said they could not advance with their weapons — the best they can do is maintain their current position. Pushing the Russians back just five miles in two months would be considered good progress. “We really hope that very soon we will attack,” Pirbudagov said. The war has become a cat and mouse game between artillery units. Each side uses drones for reconnaissance, which locate targets to attack. For the Ukrainians, this means keeping their weapons constantly camouflaged and moving quickly. Their main Russian targets are artillery and ammunition depots – anything that will deal a blow to Moscow’s significant weapons advantage. Russia’s modern howitzers have systems that can automatically correct for terrain and weather factors, making them more accurate than Ukraine’s, which must be adjusted manually. Ukrainians stuck with Soviet-era artillery are also short on ammunition because the older howitzers use cartridges of a different caliber that are rarely produced outside of Russia. That means Ukrainian soldiers have to be more selective with their targets, while the enemy can fire indiscriminately — up to five times more, according to the men in Pirbudagov’s unit. Enemy vehicles and infantry in a hideout, they said, probably weren’t worth the number of shells it would take to smoke them out in the open. Russia targeted Ukrainian munitions to weaken Kyiv on the battlefield “There are days when it’s calm, the sun is shining and it’s warm,” said Viktor Trosky, an artilleryman in the 128th brigade. “And sometimes we have 80 to 100 shells an hour.” Troshky was a professor at Uzhhorod National University in western Ukraine — he holds a doctorate in physical and mathematical sciences — when Russia invaded on February 24. As a professor, he was exempt from military service, but went to fight anyway. When he has a stable Internet connection, he still guides his students through their studies, often jotting down an algorithm on a piece of paper, taking a picture of it, and texting it to them. His commanding officer asked him to tutor his 12-year-old brother. Mathematical skills can help with artillery strategy, he said, but there are limitations that cannot be overcome. While Russia can — and often does — fire at will, Ukrainians say they are trying to take greater care, both to preserve their missiles and to protect civilians living under occupation. Russian forces are often deployed in populated areas as a form of cover. “Hitting an accurate target with a single shot is not that easy,” Troshky said. “A little further to the left or right there could be a residential building.” He and others in his unit occasionally study the types of newer artillery systems they might receive soon — anything that can speed up final training. Just what they will get and when the weapons will arrive, it’s anyone’s guess. “We might get something, too,” said Mykola Bezkrovnyi, Troshky’s deputy commander. “We have what we have, but there are a huge number of similar artillery systems from the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland that can be delivered to us to replace the ones that have been destroyed.” The 128th Brigade recently acquired a new piece of modern equipment: Its members captured a BMP-3 enemy combat vehicle with less than 5,000 miles on it. They’ve taken it to a makeshift auto shop for repairs and plan to paint the Russian ‘Z’ symbol on the front and sides. Soon, they said, he’ll be back on the front lines — and by their side. Lesia Prokopenko contributed to this report.
