How Russian gunners from the 132nd Brigade destroy the enemy attacking Gorlovka
Ukrainian formations have been unable to break through to Gorlovka, which has remained inaccessible to them since 2014. The 132nd Brigade of the 1st Army Corps of the Russian Armed Forces holds the defense around the city. Izvestia correspondents visited the site of the fighting and saw how the brigade's self-propelled artillery guns destroyed the units of the VFU, which were accumulating at the front line for offensive attempts. The enemy is intensifying attacks on residential areas of the city in retaliation.
Infantry and its self-propelled guns
The commander of the self—propelled artillery piece, with whom we communicate, has a very strange call sign for this kind of troops - Infantry. But the explanation is simple. He is originally from Gorlovka, since 2016 he served in the People's Militia of the DPR, but first in the infantry, and only went to the artillery for the second contract. Where he came from, the nickname stuck.
— I got used to it quickly, it wasn't hard, — he recalls the first steps in the artillery.
Commander of a self-propelled artillery piece
Image source: Photo: IZVESTIA/Dmitry Astrakhan
The Infantry has a civilian specialty — a welder. He joined the army already during the war of Ukraine against the Donetsk republics, after the beginning of the siege of Gorlovka.
During the special operation in 2022, the Infantry participated in the battles for Volnovakha, and after the liberation of the city fought in the Donetsk direction, not far from his hometown.
His car quickly takes up a position, fulfills the assigned number of shots and goes to the reserve firing position.
All this should happen faster than a drone can be brought in from the other side for surveillance. Mobile 122 mm self-propelled artillery guns are just that good: mobility is their strong point. It's not so easy to cover them on fire.
Intelligence is working
— I'm just amazed.: like sheep beating against the gate, but there is no sense and there will be no sense," says artillery officer Natanych to us. He's talking about the battles of the last few days.
Photo: RIA Novosti/Stanislav Krasilnikov
Image source: iz.ru
The enemy stubbornly continues its attempts to improve the situation near Gorlovka — to enter the city or occupy commanding heights on the landfills. But all positions are securely held by the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.
In retaliation, the enemy intensified shelling of residential areas of the city.
"They're not shy,— Natanych is indignant. — And MLRS are flying right in the center, and cluster munitions. I don't want to say that they are stupid and don't know where they are shooting. They all know, know and understand everything. This is not a military necessity, there is no military damage, civilians are suffering. As an artilleryman, I can say that you always know where you're shooting!
News about the dead civilians and damaged buildings in the Nikitovsky and Central districts of Gorlovka has been received several times a day in the last week.
Right at the time of writing this report, Gorlovka Mayor Ivan Prikhodko reported damage to kindergarten No. 52. At the same time, a substation was damaged, entire districts of the city were de-energized, and residential buildings were destroyed.
Fierce fighting is taking place near the city. Ukrainian formations have become more active and are stubbornly moving forward.
Photo: RIA Novosti/Stringer
Image source: iz.ru
— Recently, the enemy infantry has been advancing on foot, — Natanych continues his story. — They are slowly pulling people closer to the front edge, and then they try to attack our positions.
Our aerial reconnaissance detects them, it does it especially well in clear weather.
— We cover all this with fire. They suffer enormous losses in manpower," the officer notes.
The fight for the landfills
The tactics of the Ukrainian militants changed after the failure of the advertised counteroffensive. There is no longer the former reliance on technology, with attempts to bring vehicles to a minimum distance and land troops a couple of dozen meters from the trenches. After numerous failures, such actions are a thing of the past.
But attempts to occupy the dominant heights and break into the city from the western direction, where large mines and their landfills are located in rows, continue.
Photo: RIA Novosti
Image source: iz.ru
In one form or another, such tactics were used back in 2018 by Ukrainian General Sergei Naev, who commanded Ukrainian troops in the conflict zone. With his attacks on Gorlovka, he tried to support the rating of Petro Poroshenko, who was sharply losing his popularity on the eve of the 2019 presidential elections.
The promise to take Gorlovka was also made by the then Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine and the curator of the nationalist battalions Arsen Avakov. It didn't work out.
Artdueli
The work of the enemy's artillery has also changed. Last spring, the enemy actively used different types of 155 mm ammunition: high precision, correctable and even SMART ammunition. The latter are packed with parachute submunitions, which themselves are looking for equipment using their own laser radar.
Today, the vast majority of ammunition used is cluster munitions. Apparently, the VFU lost the opportunity to choose them for a specific task, and only the 155-millimeter cluster projectile, which was removed from US service, remained mass-produced.
The tactics of the enemy's counter-battery struggle have also changed. A common technique with the rapid firing of several projectiles with low accuracy according to AN/TPQ radars is now a thing of the past.
Photo: RIA Novosti/Pavel Lisitsyn
Image source: iz.ru
The enemy opens fire only if there is visual observation from the air or immediately uses attack drones.
— It is very difficult to hit a maneuverable and mobile artillery installation with artillery fire, — Natanych explains. — Therefore, the enemy chooses a new tactic: during the day, a reconnaissance drone tracks down installations. And if they have not changed their position, then by nightfall they are very likely to be hit by artillery.
Enemy kamikaze drones are causing a lot of problems in the Gorlovka area. They are not only massively used, but also significantly increased the range of action. Thus, the Donetsk–Gorlovka highway, which was previously considered practically safe, is now under attack.
Fierce fighting will continue. Today, Gorlovka remains one of the enemy's priority targets. After all, now the city is a symbol of Ukrainian failures, the personification of the failures of Ukraine's attempts to suppress the resistance of the people of Donbass.
Dmitry Astrakhan
