Interview of the reconnaissance commander of the “Rubizh” brigade artillery
10.11.2024 – Translated from Ukrainian via Google and OFP
Volodymyr, currently the intelligence chief of the artillery of the National Guard brigade “Rubizh”, has been defending Ukrainian land from the invaders since the very beginning of the first phase of this war in 2014. Then, in the ranks of the volunteer unit of the 25th battalion “Kyiv Rus” of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, he fought first as an infantry platoon commander, and later as an artillery reconnaissance platoon commander.
He met the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation in Kyiv and participated in the battles for Irpin, Bucha, Gostomel as part of the Svoboda volunteer formation. After the liberation of Kyiv Oblast, he was mobilized to the National Guard. Volodymyr told OBOZ.UA how, in his opinion, the war has changed, how the development of technology has affected it, what the situation is in the brigade’s area of responsibility, and which battle he will remember the most.
About intelligence and technology
After the battles in the Kyiv region, together with the unit, they were almost immediately mobilized into the 4th brigade of the National Guard, at that time it was not yet the “Rubizh” brigade. Most of the units performed tasks in the East, namely in Rubizhnye. They passed an extremely short adjustment at the training ground, literally 5-6 days – and left. I clearly remember that the urgency of the matter was such, because at that time the brigade almost single-handedly defended the rather large city of Rubizhne. And it was necessary to quickly help the boys who, since the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation, participated in hot battles in the East. At that time, the enemy was coming from the north of the Luhansk region, the situation was quite critical – there were not enough forces and opportunities.
At first I was the deputy commander of a regular company, a regular battalion, but sometime from the end of 2022 I was transferred to deal with artillery, then I was the deputy commander of a battalion with artillery.
My work is mainly reconnaissance, i.e. reconnaissance, correction, UAVs, reconnaissance wings, analytics. Comparing my experience in 2014 and now, I would like to note that now artillery intelligence, and in principle, intelligence is not the same as it was then. In 2014, adjusting artillery is, roughly speaking, when a scout goes behind enemy lines and sees a target, through binoculars or other optics. That is, it scouts the target specifically where there is a concentration of the enemy, where there is an enemy gun, or where there is an enemy base or armored vehicles and adjusts the artillery, visually seeing this target.
Quite often in 2014-2015, and not only, and in 2022 too, adjusting the artillery was extremely risky for the scout. Go beyond the front line, pass, crawl through. I remember that in 2014, artillery reconnaissance was for several days, it was difficult, especially in winter, without the opportunity to warm up, get out, climb, pass, pass, occupy some heights, and visually try to see, discern, observe, recon, and thus adjust by radio stations In 2022, there were quite a lot of Ukrainians who resisted in the temporarily occupied territories, they transmitted and corrected certain strikes – whether artillery or “Bayraktar” – by various means of communication.
Now, after all, 90-99% of artillery adjustments are UAVs of various types and principles: wings, copters, satellite images, etc. That is, every day modern war is becoming more and more a war of technologies. This leads to economy of ammunition, to speed, to speed of coordination, to greater accuracy. This has its advantages: the enemy will suffer greater losses. But when we talk about the losses of the enemy, we also understand that the enemy also adapts and learns from its own mistakes.
The modern artillery unit is armed with the 82nd mortar of 1937 and the 120-caliber regimental mortar of 1938 and Soviet systems of various calibers to Western weapons.
About the situation in the brigade’s area of responsibility
The biggest priority of a large artillery machine is primarily counter-battery combat. And in general – to prevent the enemy from reaching the front zero lines and to destroy them on more distant approaches. Yes, in order to protect our fellow infantrymen from infantry contact as much as possible. Well, as an infantryman of the 22nd year, I understand this, it is extremely important, because many times I had to participate in contacts and understand how dangerous enemy tanks are or how important it is to see and destroy enemy infantry before they get to a firefight at the distance of a machine gun shot.
The “Rubizh” brigade is currently working in several areas. These are generally Siversky, Lymansky directions. And since our brigade is one of the most prepared not only in the National Guard, but also in the Defense Forces in general, these are one of the hottest, most responsible areas. What we can talk about is Severodonetsk, Rubizhne.
Contacts do not subside for a moment. Every battle is hard. I can also remember 2015 – the exit from Debaltseve, and 2022, when we almost got encircled in Rubizhny, and the victorious battles in Irpen, when we actually completed the recapture of the city and were the first to enter, freed Gostomel and Bucha. There’s actually a lot of fighting going on, and it’s very hard fighting right now. But I think our winning fight will be remembered the most. This will be a battle that will be remembered by all of Ukraine, the last big battle in which we will win.
Every battle of our units that is going on right now seems to be the hardest. And this is understandable, that is why technologies are becoming more sophisticated. If we talk about art intelligence, now with that knowledge, with those skills, changes, equipment, coordination of technologies compared to 2014 or even to 2022, it is actually getting harder and harder every day.
If we talk about the exploits of the guys who are now fighting in the infantry, it seems that it is much more difficult than even in the 22nd year. The reason is the deployment of UAVs in the sky and artillery, which conducts not only annoying fire on squares, but also tries to conduct high-precision fire with a target, make adjustments from a copter or other means of observation.
About the “key” to victory
Now all the Defense Forces work as one coherent mechanism. The defense of Severodonetsk, for example, when there are fighters from different units and the main thing is the chevron of a Ukrainian, the chevron of the Ukrainian army, the oath to the Ukrainian people, the Ukrainian nation. This is what unites different theaters of war, different areas, different tasks. Each unit receives a separate task, but, let’s say, the front lines cross repeatedly. And no one ever canceled joint fire on the enemy.
On the contrary, we combine, perform tasks, come to each other’s support, join in and understand that the main task is to destroy as many orcs as possible. One of the keys to victory in this war is to inflict such losses on the enemy that will be so felt for him that he will not have time to recover.
There is no other way, because if you don’t stop their meat assaults, the orcs will be alive and will come to peaceful cities, villages, settlements, bring death, ruins, slavery, destruction. What we saw in many cities, how they destroy, shoot Ukrainians. This is the genocide of the Ukrainian people. Unfortunately, there are many of them and they must be stopped. In order to stop them, you just have to exterminate them. No matter how many there are, it must be done and not stopped. There is simply no other way.
In order to win, there must be a complex of factors, there is, unfortunately, no magic cheat code like in a computer game. There were many hopes that there would be HIMARS and that would be the key to victory. Abrams will come – and this is the key to victory, or F-16 will come – and here it is, victory. In fact, there is no universal key to victory. The only thing possible is to destroy as many orcs as possible. So that the occupying army loses its fighting capacity and, as a result, loses its ability to fight. We have to protect ourselves, protect our families, cities, nation, state, future. This is the biggest responsibility.
“Our key to victory is to destroy the enemy in as large a number as possible.”
Killing russians is currently the most important job on this globe. Eliminating the cockroach army is essential to preserving peace in Europe.
The quote above should be kept in mind when the Ukrainians surrender small portions of land. It’s done only when necessary and usually follows the killing and maiming of as many cockroaches as possible and destroying as many pieces of enemy equipment as possible.