Ukraine has a clear advantage in artillery war against Russia - Newsweek

Ukraine retains a clear advantage in artillery warfare with Russia, whose troops were more numerous and better equipped at the beginning of the full-scale invasion. But despite all the alleged modernization, the Russian "gods of war" have become much weaker against the systems now available to the Defense Forces.

Ukrainian artillery and UAV groups are hunting for large-caliber weapons, as well as the occupiers' multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS), which perform a similar function at shorter distances. So today, the artillery of the Russian army is being depleted, according to the Newsweek article.

Analysts noted that from September to November 2023, the Armed Forces of Ukraine destroyed 2272 artillery systems and 167 enemy MLRS. For the same period in 2022, this figure was 789 and 108, respectively.

"This is a really big problem for the Russians. This is not just a cliché, this is not Ukrainian 'propaganda'. Over the past five months, Russia has been very active in using old-style artillery. Not of the late Soviet era, but of the mid-50s and 60s, artillery such as towed howitzers D30 and D20 with a maximum range of 15-18 km," Ivan Stupak, a former SSU officer and now an advisor to the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence, commented.

According to him, this is a very short distance, for example, compared to the Swedish Archer self-propelled artillery system of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, which has a range of 30-60 km, depending on the projectile. Stupak emphasized that Russian artillery stocks are completely exhausted, and the occupiers are using existing systems "because they have no other choice."

The publication noted that Russian dictator Vladimir Putin is transforming the country's economy into a military one. However, increasing the production of spare parts for artillery is a difficult task and partly depends on Western technology, to which Moscow currently has limited access.

Newsweek said that the Kremlin's problem is only becoming more urgent as advanced Western munitions arrive in Ukraine. It said that the summer and fall increase in the number of reportedly destroyed Russian artillery systems coincided with the arrival of cluster munitions to Ukraine.

"Now Ukraine also has long-range cluster munitions of the MGM-140 missile system, known as ATACMS, launched by HIMARS. Ukrainian artillerymen are aided by increasingly sophisticated counter-battery radars, which are used to quickly detect firing Russian guns," analysts say.

This opinion is shared by American combat veteran Dan Rice, who was previously a special adviser to the Ukrainian Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi. He noted that the Ukrainians now have "firepower" over the Russians, as well as more advanced and effective weapons systems.

"The full-scale deployment of cluster artillery shells and missiles has entered a new phase of the war. That is why Putin is offering 'peace talks' and calling it a 'tragedy'. Now Moscow is forced to deal with deep strikes against large concentrations of its troops and any artillery or MLRS," Rice said.

Nevertheless, experts agree that both sides will need much more ammunition to continue the war.

"Kyiv has a lot of problems with the delivery of artillery shells from European countries... We were promised about 1 million shells, but so far we have only about 300,000. Russia has a million shells from North Korea and Iran, and it is trying to buy them in different countries where it used to supply them," Stupak said.

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