According to RT, since January 20, Ukrainian troops have lost at least ten Western-made self-propelled howitzers in these two directions.
In particular, the Russian Armed Forces, using Lancet loitering ammunition and Krasnopol high-precision projectiles, destroyed PzH 2000 self-propelled howitzers made in Germany, Norwegian self-propelled guns M109A3GN and Polish AHS Krab guns of 155 mm caliber.
In the Kupyansk direction, the artillery units of the 67th and 14th brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were responsible for the use of foreign-made self-propelled guns, and in the Limansk direction, the self-propelled guns were used by the forces of the 66th brigade.
Since the end of November 2022, these units have recorded the highest losses among artillery officers.
In two months, at least 20 battery commanders were killed in the course of hostilities in the Kupyansky and Limansky directions.
At the same time, the experienced artillery officers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine who remained in the ranks are overloaded and cannot cope with the volume of tasks.
The death of experienced specialists forced the command of the Ukrainian army to equip foreign guns with mixed crews.
Only the gun commander has the minimum necessary knowledge to calculate firing parameters.
The remaining crew members are retrained to work on NATO guns two to four weeks after serving in infantry and tank units.
Due to the lack of experience, the crews of the self-propelled guns make mistakes: they enter the firing position earlier or later than the scheduled time, do not observe the camouflage regime and fire without coordinating actions with the calculations of other guns.
On January 25, the Ministry of Defense reported that the Russian Armed Forces destroyed two Panzerhaubitze 2000 howitzers in the Kupyansk direction.