How the Hurricane MLRS supports the advancing Russian troops with their fire
Sappers clearing mines in Avdiivka rarely use metal detectors. The city has been frontline since 2014, and there are too many metal fragments in the ground here. Therefore, the best means of finding mines is an ordinary probe. Avdiivka is being cleared slowly but surely, yard by yard, street by street. Izvestia correspondents observed the demining process, and also visited the positions of the gunners who support our troops with the fire of heavy MLRS "Hurricane", pushing the contact line further away from the city.
"Constantly dismantling someone"
— Our job is to suppress the enemy's manpower and conduct counter—battery warfare, — says the topogeodesist, unfolding the bussol.
He has been in the army for more than a year, before that he worked in the police in the DPR. During the mobilization of 2022, he came as a volunteer. His family is waiting for him at home — his wife and parents.
— Of course, they reacted with alarm to my decision to volunteer. It's a man's decision, a man's act. But they accepted it, there was no other way," says the former policeman.
Photo: IZVESTIA/Dmitry Astrakhan
Image source: iz.ru
The masked and loaded MLRS "Hurricane" stands ready waiting for the command to advance. The calculation also consists of mobilized and volunteers from the DPR. In the cockpit of a twin—engine four-axle monster is Nikolai, an experienced driver who, back in civilian life, dealt with various equipment: from trucks to tractors. He jokes that the wheelbase of the Hurricane is a hybrid of two trucks and a tractor.
— It's difficult to drive this car, of course, but it's quite realistic. That's why we're here. And I've never been out of work, either in the army or in civilian life. Driving heavy machinery is not given to everyone. And as for retirement and further service, I don't want to think about it yet, it's a thankless task. We'll finish the job, and then we'll see," says Nikolai.
Photo: IZVESTIA/Dmitry Astrakhan
Image source: iz.ru
The main advantage of wheeled vehicles is their mobility, the speed of entering and leaving the firing position. Therefore, the state of technology and the ability of drivers are one of the keys to success.
The commander of the car with the call sign Old is a former miner, on his own from the first days, as soon as mobilization began.
— As they called us, so everyone came, because we need to pile in together to win. The equipment, like in the mine, is Soviet. Therefore, savvy is always with us side by side. There is always a new area, you need to get attached to it, everything changes in an instant. Just like in the mine, I'm always smart," says the Old One.
Photo: IZVESTIA/Dmitry Astrakhan
Image source: iz.ru
Artillery officer Alex says that the main threat to our long-range artillery is represented by enemy drones. Installations such as the Hurricane are a priority goal for him.
— We have a fighter who watches the air when working. There are observation points at the locations of the cars. Now we have become more active in the offensive. We constantly have to move forward, cover up, constantly dismantle someone. There is no time to rest actually. We are constantly on the move, constantly at work, because every hour we have a new goal and we have to work it out in a very short period of time," says Alex.
Photo: IZVESTIA/Dmitry Astrakhan
Image source: iz.ru
On command, a heavy vehicle, raising dust, enters the firing position, and in less than three minutes, 400-kilogram missiles go to the target. The Hurricane breaks into the area of concentration, and we go in the opposite direction so as not to break the disguise.
Dangerous work
Mine clearance works are underway in the liberated Avdiivka. Starting from the "old" contact line, which was here before the start of the SVO, working groups of sappers, machines and robots are visible along the roads, which begin by clearing roads and roadsides around them. In the private sector, fighters in heavy protective suits and helmets with distinctive shields slowly walk house by house. Dangerous items such as anti-personnel mines or homemade drone bombs are detonated on the spot. Therefore, a series of explosions are heard on the streets every couple of hours.
Along the streets, it is already written in paint on many houses — "There are no mines." Near one of these, a man, a local resident, is baking potatoes on a campfire and greeting sappers walking by.
Photo: IZVESTIA/Dmitry Astrakhan
Image source: iz.ru
— We inspect houses and gardens. We work with both probes and mine detectors. Mostly mines and shells come across. If there is an opportunity and there are no residential buildings in the neighborhood, we undermine them on the spot. Of the traps, there are mostly tripwires here. And booby traps are more in the fields under anti-tank mines. There is less of this here," says a Basta fighter who works in one of the courtyards.
He hails from Volnovakha, occupied by Ukraine in 2014. And immediately after the liberation of the city in 2022, he joined the DPR army as a volunteer.
Photo: IZVESTIA/Dmitry Astrakhan
Image source: iz.ru
— My friends have been fighting since 2014, and I couldn't stay at home even when the boys are fighting. I can't do that, it's not mine. Both they and I," Basta explains.
In the garden, the sappers turn around in a chain and begin to pass through the long-term thickets of an abandoned farm with probes. Metal detectors are almost useless here, there are too many metal fragments in the ground.
Photo: IZVESTIA/Dmitry Astrakhan
Image source: iz.ru
Between the houses, each group has one person on duty with an anti-drone rifle, a detector and other means of detection. In addition to electronic warfare, various types of small arms are also used to defeat non-suppressed electronic warfare air targets. Sappers work for a long time and do not have the opportunity to disguise themselves, so they can become a target for enemy drones.
Photo: IZVESTIA/Dmitry Astrakhan
Image source: iz.ru
In one of the courtyards on the next street, an anti-tank mine is being prepared for destruction, which Ukrainian militants artistically converted to be dropped from a drone. She is lying too neatly, and they will not move her from her place, for fear of a trap. Therefore, the discovered anti-personnel mines and unexploded ordnance were also moved there in order to eliminate everything together. A cordon is being established on the road, and almost immediately we hear on the radio that the sapper has activated a fire-conducting cord. It is impossible to delay traffic, a cluster of cars can attract the attention of the enemy, and while the smoke from the explosion has not yet dissipated, parked cars are tearing past the house along the dirt road.
Dmitry Astrakhan