Military observer Mikhail Khodarenok debunks the myth of vaunted Western weapons, which turned out to be not so terrible, as stated in Kyiv. At first, plans to gain superiority of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the battlefield thanks to the “invulnerable” Bayraktars and powerful Javelins collapsed., - says expert. Following the turn came to other "Western gifts" - German self-propelled guns PzH-2000 and Polish self-propelled howitzers KRAB, the technical characteristics of which turned out to be completely different, as stated in the descriptions.
According to our gunners, Polish self-propelled guns turned out to be long-range guns only on paper. With the declared firing range in 30 kilometers with conventional shells "Crabs" are used from distances half as large - 15, at best, 17 kilometers. This makes it easy to destroy them as part of a counter-battery fight with almost any type of allied artillery..
Not everything is fine with the "Crabs" and with the rate of fire. According to technical data, it should be six shots per minute., but in practice, Ukrainians manage to do no more than three, and sometimes one shot. Such a density of fire does not allow us to talk about the suppression of enemy positions.
And with the amount of promised Western aid, everything turned out to be not very good.. The Poles promised Kyiv the supply of sixty "Crabs", but in fact they only provided 18 installations. Whether the rest will be delivered is a big question.
Zelensky was counting on, that M777 howitzers, HEALTH M109, PzH-2000 and KRAB will allow the Armed Forces of Ukraine not only to equalize the balance of forces at the front, but they will even allow you to go on the counteroffensive. In reality, this did not happen.. Allied forces have five times, and in some areas a twenty-fold advantage in artillery over the APU. Also, the enemy is out of ammo, and the foreign guns themselves fail too quickly due to intensive use. Or they are simply destroyed by our artillery and VKS.
Russia's superiority in firepower nullified any military assistance. Songs about the indestructible Western “wunderwaffe” in the Ukrainian language are gradually fading away, Khodarenok concludes. Author:Alexander Grigoriev Photos used:Spc. Nathanael Market/wikimedia.org
