"The Russians crammed their artillery into people's homes": An exclusive interview with an officer from the 44th Separate Artillery Brigade on Russian tactics in the Zaporizhzhia region

The head of communications of the 44th separate artillery brigade named after Danylo Apostol, Maksym Kolomiyets "Khytryi", gave an exclusive interview to Channel 24. The serviceman spoke about the change in tactics in the Zaporizhia direction, counter-battery combat, the reduction of artillery work due to drones, and new threats from the sky.

One of the most poignant details of the conversation: the enemy has begun using "waiting" drones with reels of 60 kilometers of fiber optic, which can wait for a target for up to 24 hours. They also talked about the role of women in intelligence units and about recruitment to the brigade.

How has the work of artillery changed?

What is the current operational situation in the Zaporizhzhia direction, where your guys serve? How has the work of artillery changed in general, given the prevalence of drones and electronic warfare systems?

If we talk about the operational situation in the direction in general, we can confidently say that the enemy has not changed its tactics. It has not changed for more than half a year. It has the same narratives, the same principles. And it is still the same combat work.

These are small assault groups of four to five people who move to find a loophole in our defense line and conduct infiltration.

Usually, such assault groups are suppressed at the very beginning, when the enemy is just starting to attack. Now, with the development of technology, with the development of drones, it is noticeable even in the beginning of their plans. And we, as artillerymen, are trying to suppress this at the very beginning.

That's one of the tools. Can you explain what it is, why it's needed for work?

This is exactly what an anti-drone gun is. It works on multiple frequencies. If you look closely, there are ranges of frequencies it works on.

In fact, let's be honest, it's not as effective now as it used to be, because everyone already knows that drones work on fiber optics. And the feasibility of this, when there is fiber optics, is minimal.

Currently, the most appropriate way to shoot down drones is with pump-action shotguns. Shotguns that, when fired, scatter into a large number of small fragments. And due to this, they destroy the drone itself.

Regarding how we got this thing, the same sabotage groups that were moving, trying to infiltrate, they can often carry such weapons with them in order to suppress our drones. One of those enemy servicemen had such a thing. As we can see, it was slightly deformed, modernized. It no longer works, and we have it as an exhibit.

Full conversation: watch the video

What are you currently fundraising for? What urgent needs do you still have?

If we move from this anti-drone gun to our needs, we are currently trying to improve, modernize unmanned aerial vehicles, because usually they are standard, they are not modernized. That is, whatever their technical characteristics are during production, that is how they work.

We are trying to improve them so that they can fly further, see more, fly longer and destroy enemies even better. Due to this, if we modernize them, such things will definitely not be able to interfere with them. Therefore, whoever wants, we will be very happy if you can support us and join this noble cause.

To retrofit and modernize drones, donate to the current collection at the link .

So, I understand that any artillery brigade or any other brigade still has both drones and electronic warfare systems in its arsenal now? It's a must. There's no such thing as an artillery brigade, so you only work with artillery?

Unfortunately, there are probably many viewers who think: "There's an infantry brigade, there's only infantry, nothing else. There's an artillery brigade, only artillery, guns, people near the guns and that's it." This is far from the case.

In fact, now, over time, war is changing, the principles of combat are changing, and each brigade should have different areas of development.

Previously, no one would have thought that artillery would need UGVs because everyone thinks that artillery is far from the front line. But with the development of drones now, we already understand that without UGVs we will have a hard time.

We need to bring in ammunition, we need to bring in any supplies, and with the help of UGVs it is much easier to do this than to expose a person, and often it is two people, because no one rides alone in vehicles, to danger.

What main tasks are your guys currently performing in your sector?

If we talk specifically about combat missions, of course, this is the destruction of as much enemy equipment and personnel as possible. We work in synergy with drones, both ground-based and unmanned aerial vehicles.

In fact, everything is very simple. The drone flies, sees the target, immediately transmits the coordinates for us, and then our strong and powerful word of artillery comes into play.

We work when the same drone cannot work, because, unfortunately, a drone is a thing that requires favorable weather conditions. That is, the sun must be shining, there must not be much wind. If it rains, it will be difficult to control it. Again, fog - it will not take off, because it will not see anything, or it will have to fly very low. And then they return to the good old artillery.

How will your work change with the change in weather conditions and will it be easier to work on enemy equipment and directly on the enemy? Because we understand that there will be no foliage, so this will make your work easier?

On the one hand, yes, and on the other hand, no. Because, simply put, it becomes much easier to see you. And again, the same UAVs, with their help it is much easier to detect a cannon or, for example, some other equipment.

What am I getting at? Because when a cannon is operating in winter or autumn, when it's already getting cool, it heats up too much, and through a thermal imaging drone it will simply be visible for kilometers. Without even flying up, without standing over it. That is, you can see from tens of kilometers that a cannon is operating somewhere there.

But in reality, in a sense, it's actually easier to work because the natural camouflage disappears, there's no green, it's harder to camouflage, or you can already see where there are well-trodden enemy routes.

That is, we can understand that, yeah, there was some equipment there or there was a cannon there, so we need to work there.

If, for example, we compare the work of your guys in 2022 and now, how much less is artillery working now in percentage terms than it was then?

Yes, indeed, it has less work now compared to how it was before, because back then no one could even imagine that drones would develop so much. We knew that they were there, they were flying somewhere. Usually these were flying-wing drones, reconnaissance drones.

It's very rare that anyone has come up with anything to attach bombs or ammunition to them. But if you compare 2022 and 2026, I would say that the work of artillery has been reduced by at least half.

Just a number – 2022, June, we were standing near Bakhmut. We were working with one gun, firing around 150 shells per day. One shell is 50 kilograms. You can calculate how many kilograms we launched at the enemy.

Now one cannon fires 20-30 rounds a day at best. And again, it's not so much because we don't have anything to work with or anything, but for safety reasons.

Because we are currently working on the Bogdan self-propelled artillery systems. They are very large, and in order to make them impossible to detect or reduce the likelihood of them being detected, we have to practice, fire one or two quick shots and go back to camouflage.

That takes a certain amount of time. We have to wait a period because the drone will be looking for us. After we wait that out, we can go out and work again. This didn't happen before. We could work non-stop, for hours.

How dangerous are enemy "waiting drones"?

Artillery is also one of the primary targets that the enemy is looking for. Is he also resorting to new camouflage technologies? I've heard that there are even such "waiters", drones that sit there and can wait for half a day until something appears on the horizon in order to hit the target. Is there really such a thing?

Yes. "The waiters" are really getting on our nerves right now . This is one of the key factors in the enemy's fight against our artillery, because they send them far to the rear, they can camouflage them in the grass.

We recently came across a drone that had a coil of 60 kilometers of fiber optics on it. That's an incredibly long distance it can fly.

Its working principle: it can wait for up to a day for its target . And as soon as it sees that this is indeed the case, it rises and immediately tries to attack its target, which it has aimed at.

It turns out that the occupier is also sitting around for this whole day and watching to see if this drone can operate automatically, in some semi-automatic mode, or what? Or only when an operator is watching it, how it works on fiber optics?

Actually, I'm not ready to answer this question, why it works like that, but logically he should sit there all day. But I doubt that anyone would do that, sitting there all day, staring at a monitor.

But on the other hand, putting some kind of automatic guidance on it is probably a very expensive thing to spend on one drone... But no one looks for logic in war.

From what, for example, have you seen new Russian weapons, what new tactics are they using, what more simplified drones are they using, for example? Those "Molnias", we understand, there are a lot of them flying, although they cost a penny, but how much damage do they cause?

The last thing I saw regarding how the enemy works. The same "Lightnings", they cost a penny, as you say, but they also put FPV drones on their wings.

That is, the "Lightning" works like a kind of queen. It flies to a certain distance, the FPV drone takes off, and not only the "Lightning" strikes, but due to the FPV it flies to the target, strikes even further.

And if you shoot down this "Lightning", then the FPV drone will automatically be shot down as well, can the FPV drone have time to fly further?

If they have some kind of serious reaction, I think it can fly further. But usually, if it gets shot down in the air, the blast wave can damage the drone as well.

How do the occupiers abuse civilians?

What else is bothering you at the front right now, mostly in your direction?

Of course, there is the same counter-battery fight that we are talking about. It is not only on our side that the guns work, unfortunately, on their side they work.

But I can say with confidence that over the last period of time, we, as artillerymen, have nullified their advantage in the south. They no longer have dominance there, and in some places they are even afraid to advance towards us, because they understand that they will be destroyed instantly.

There were cases where in some places they could shove their guns into people's houses. The barrels stuck out of the windows. There is no mention of humanitarian law, of humanity here at all.

That is, they try as much as possible to somehow hide their positions and disguise themselves as civilians. We see this all the time. Was there anything besides houses where they also tried?

Usually 60 percent of them always try to hide behind civilians.

That is, these are guns that are standing next to houses, as I said, in houses they can be somewhere near settlements. Usually, most of them use settlements to camouflage their weapons there.

Just recently there was information that in the Hulyaipole and Orikhiv directions your guys hit and destroyed three Msta howitzers and another howitzer. How is this even possible? That is, such large units of equipment. Is this work in one day, in one week, to understand how rare such cases are becoming now?

If we talk about the complex of work itself, it is clearly not one day and maybe not even a couple of days, because we need to be sure that it is a cannon or something else. We have been monitoring this for a very long period of time.

We need to fly for at least two or three days to see if it really is a cannon there, or maybe we were mistaken and there is some kind of dummy there so that we don't have to work there again. Accordingly, this is the work of our intelligence.

After that, our gunners come into play. It takes them one and a half to two minutes to actually disassemble the gun, because they need to hit it once or twice. And there is no gun.

And there are cases when artillery can't hit right there, because that same house, for example, we can destroy it, but the gun will remain intact, and we know that they will roll it away. That's why we work with the help of UAVs as well.

Again, this is about the same thing that we need to modernize UAVs so that they can avoid enemy electronic warfare, so that they can arrive much faster or fly much longer. With these strike UAVs, we also destroy enemy weapons.

It's also very interesting to see if they are carrying explosives.

No, no, we usually have two types of UAVs. The usual ones are FPV drones, to which we attach explosives, and there are also "wing" drones called "Dars".

It flies longer distances, it is more stable because it has a wing, it is more resistant to wind. And you can control it better and bring it to the target. It can carry up to 8 kilograms of explosives on it, if I'm not mistaken. This is more than enough to punch at least a hole in the barrel or get into the ammunition, which will explode instantly.

If we talk about the enemy's tactics, we understand that KABs still remain a big problem for us, because, unfortunately, they still have enough of them. In your direction, how often does the enemy use KABs and is there any countermeasures to this now?

In fact, I don't even know what the countermeasures against the KABs should be, because you can't... Probably, you need to shoot him down while he's still in the plane. I don't know about the countermeasures as such, but it's non-stop.

In fact, there is no such period of time when enemy aircraft are not operating. The weather does not affect this in any way. Not at all. That is, they take off, they launch from a huge distance and operate. Worst of all, they operate on the civilian population.

This is the worst that can happen, because in proportion, probably 70% of KABs fly to large cities, such as Zaporizhia, or frontline settlements, such as Komyshuvakha and nearby settlements near it. And only 25% fly specifically to the Armed Forces.

Why are they launching at civilian targets, for what?

I don't think there's any logical explanation for this. In fact, this is my personal opinion, these are crazy people who have nothing sacred.

In order to intimidate, perhaps to show that look how scary we are, that we can do this, and that's it, run away or obey.

This is my only thought, why do this, because don't be afraid, fight with the military, not with civilians. It's just that they are committing genocide, really.

But are FPV drones already flying in Zaporizhia?

Unfortunately, yes, FPV drones do fly. Again, using the same principle I mentioned earlier, with the help of reconnaissance UAVs, they can fly even further.

And the worst thing is that when they fly to Zaporizhia, they understand that they won't be able to fly further to the center of Zaporizhia, where they might want to get to some "decision-making center," and they hit the outskirts.

In the neighborhoods, where peaceful people live, they are hitting regular vehicles. Unfortunately, there is simply no explanation for this.

But do their operators see the picture at this moment?

Of course, the full picture . Yes, we all saw this video that went viral on the Internet, where a drone flew over a man in Kherson, and the operator saw this picture. This is just bullying.

Where is the "kill zone" in Zaporizhia?

What are the difficulties of your work due to the fact that so many drones are flying. How much harder has it become to enter and exit positions? Because we have heard stories more than once that the guys could be in positions for 100, even 200 days, but we understand that artillery is not the first line anyway. But since the line now, the "kill zone" reaches 20-30 kilometers, does this affect your work, too?

Yes, of course. When we first started talking about the "kill zone," we said it was around 10 kilometers. And everyone said the artillery was far away, they should feel safe.

But in reality, the "kill zone" now is the route from Zaporizhia, for example, to Orikhiv or to the same Hulyaipole. Because a drone can be waiting for you anywhere.

We talked about the "waiting drones" that are extremely annoying to us. The same reconnaissance drones that carry FPV attack drones work like queens.

This makes our work extremely difficult, because we need to get to the position on a huge self-propelled gun "Bogdan". This is a machine that is 12 meters long and 4 meters high. I think you understand that it is difficult to miss such a target.

Again, we only move into position when there are adverse weather conditions for drones. And because of that, our guys who are in position can actually be there for a longer period of time than we would like, but often it's no more than two to three weeks.

And our guys immediately change, we don't have such colossal numbers. Again, you need to understand that we still have a certain gap and distance to the line of combat contact. Like in artillery, there is at least 10 kilometers. The danger is there, but not as critical as in infantry.

Is Russia preparing for an offensive in the south?

In the Zaporizhia direction, such a front line remains active. Do you see a buildup of troops now, or do you see preparations for a possible larger, broader offensive? We hear that the Russians are going to mobilize another 300,000 people. Do you really see any preparations for such a thing?

Do you know what else is specific here? They can prepare for an extremely long time, gather a large number of personnel, a huge amount of equipment, but there is a specific landscape in the south. These are vast steppes, where any movements are visible from afar.

At least, I think, 50 kilometers away we will understand that something is already moving. For example, in our arsenal there is a UAV called Raybird, it flies up to 70 kilometers deep, into the enemy's rear.

Why does it fly so far? Because it has a great zoom feature, and due to that it shoots from a height of 5 kilometers. So you can understand: if something happens there, we will already find out about it almost online.

Again, if they think, plan, and gather something there, now, due to the specific landscape of the south, we will be able to very quickly counteract these actions by the enemy. We can quickly destroy columns, we can quickly respond to the movement of enemy equipment and personnel. Therefore, it will be extremely difficult for them to do anything there.

Yes, they are, unfortunately, when we look at DeepState, we see that they are gradually moving, but they are moving only in those areas where there are complications for the defense line. That is, somewhere, unfortunately, there may be failures, and after this failure it can significantly affect further lines.

So, as of now, there is no such accumulation of troops and equipment in the Zaporizhia direction that would be evidence of a larger-scale offensive?

It is on the front line, where they begin their fighting, that we do not record this. Perhaps they may be collecting something somewhere in the rear, but it is on the front line that we do not see it.

This summer, we saw how well our long-range drones are cutting off this logistics. Has this started to affect the occupiers? Have they started having problems with fuel? Fuel tankers are not arriving, equipment is not arriving, perhaps they are even retreating somewhere in some areas. It is very interesting here, has the cutting off of logistics already affected them?

Actually, yes, it did have an impact. And we can say why it did: because we no longer see that big equipment on the front line. We don't see tanks, we don't see infantry fighting vehicles, we don't see armored personnel carriers of various kinds.

Usually these are some small cars, like minivans or their "Tigers". Usually they are used to transport personnel to positions, to quickly get them there and back. No equipment is used for assaults at all. These are only ATVs or motorcycles.

Previously, the equipment would drive closer to the demarcation line, refuel all the main equipment, and the fuel trucks would return. Now, on the contrary, all the main equipment drives to the fuel trucks, refuels, and returns to itself.

How long has it been since you saw such heavy equipment from the occupiers?

I need a small remark. When there are weather conditions that are conducive to the movement of such equipment as tanks, I haven't seen it for quite a while. For half a year, I definitely haven't seen it moving in our direction.

We were lucky enough to destroy one of their tanks recently, but we have no logical explanation for how it ended up there. Let them wander around like that more often.

But when there is, for example, rain or foggy weather, then it is possible for equipment such as armored personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles to move, but again, they do not reach the area simply because of the specific landscape of the southern region.

Besides ATVs, what else do the occupiers use? Or how far do they have to walk to reach at least some position, or do they have cover from above, also from the sky?

Of course, they work through drones. They have to understand where they need to go. And how far they can move is all relative. In fact, very few such groups reach the front line. A lot of them go out, and only a few reach it. They move at least tens of kilometers there.

Do you see their movement as constant every day, meaning they don't stop trying to move forward like that? Are there days when you see that there aren't even any pushes at all?

Well, of course, there are days there, but they are few.

When are they finally being driven to slaughter?

But I can't say what their ideology is, why they're doing it, who's forcing them to do it, and what kind of wonderful orator they have to force them to go to the slaughter. But in reality, that's how it is.

They simply move like meat to scout where we have what. Their main goal is to get there so that the person who controls the drone can see and gather some information about where each piece of equipment is on our defense line.

You say, if they don't have heavy weapons, what kind of equipment are they trying to bring up, what else are they using?

In fact, they have it, but they hide it and they don't show it. They work, of course, with cannons, they work the same way as we do. They use mortars very often.

But now the war is turning into a war of unmanned systems, both ground-based robotic and aviation systems.

Do they use UGVs too?

Yes, they also have UGVs, but, let's say, I have not yet encountered such advanced ones as ours. I have not seen them. Perhaps they exist somewhere, but, for example, we have all seen UGVs operating with remote-controlled machine guns. That is, they come in and clear out settlements. This has not been noticed among them yet.

Do yours work with such UGVs?

Unfortunately, our artillery has a slightly different specificity. We have to cover those who are clearing these settlements. Therefore, our main job is to make sure that the enemy doesn't even notice that these UGVs have arrived.

Usually, you know how the tandem of unmanned systems and artillery works? That is, first of all, unmanned systems work, the same FPV drones or some kind of strike drones, they strike at the enemy's position. The enemy understands that drones are working on them, hides in some hole, and artillery is already working here.

That is, the artillery hits this very hole. And accordingly, the chance of survival is much lower when they are crowded together, and a 155-caliber gun flies there. If someone still survives, then the drones finish them off.

What equipment do you mainly work with? I mean, is it Ukrainian or foreign, is there parity in this?

We still have, let's say, a choice of what we want to work with. Because we still have international samples left. In 2022, we completely switched to NATO standards.

We worked on the "three axes" M777 and FH70. This is an Estonian or Italian gun. We worked with them for a longer period of time until 2024. They performed very well.

Especially the M777 – in my personal subjective opinion, it is one of the best guns that I have ever worked on. By the way, I was trained as an artilleryman on it.

The cannon is beautiful. If you fold it up to hide it, it will be a maximum of 1.5 meters high. That is, you fold it up, hide it, you can spread this cannon out there in a field of sunflowers, lower it to the very bottom, and it will not be visible.

If we talk about what is happening now, we still have the M777, we completely transferred the FH70 to other brigades, and we ourselves, in turn, have been rearmed with domestic self-propelled guns "Bogdan" and "Bogdan-B", that is, trailed "Bogdans".

Well, we still have rocket artillery systems. These are the ones like the Czechoslovakian "Vampire", still of the old model. And there are "Hurricanes". Well, there is one little thing that we will not talk about for now. That will be a surprise for the occupiers.

How is recruitment to the brigade done?

If, for example, there are people who are watching us right now and would like to sign up with you, how do you go about recruiting? Is there a procedure for finding you, what to do for that?

The first thing you need to do is find us on social networks . In any social networks there is a link to our recruiting contact phone number, a link to a Google form for filling out a questionnaire, after which our recruiters will immediately contact you and go through the initial stage of communication.

That is, they learn the needs, they learn the vision of the serviceman, and again, the serviceman undergoes a certain selection. Perhaps even during a phone conversation, he will understand that he is not interested, or we will understand that such a serviceman is not suitable for us.

After that, if we already understand that, let's say, our views coincide, we invite him to our place, to our unit. He undergoes a psychological selection, communicates with representatives of the medical department and with the personnel who are looking for a position for him. But even if a person purposefully knows that he wants to go to work on some suitable gun or on some suitable UAV, we can already reserve a place for him in this.

That is, they call and say: "I want to join your brigade, specifically the 44th artillery brigade. I want to work on the "Vampire" multiple launch rocket system." That's it, no problem. That is, we contacted the unit, said: "There is a person ready to go to you, are you ready to pick him up, when and how everything is."

They come to us, receive an appropriate referral, pass a military medical commission, and then go through stages of training. We, in turn, practice such a level of training that when a person comes to us, in addition to basic military training, they undergo at least 3-4 weeks of training with the sergeant corps in the unit.

Because we understand that if a person is sent immediately into combat, they will bring even more danger than benefit. Because a person is unprepared, not understanding what and how to do in a given situation, they are truly dangerous.

In addition to worrying about your health and the health of your comrades-in-arms, you must also keep an eye on the person next to you who doesn't understand what to do at any given time.

What tasks on the front do women perform better?

Are there any women in the brigade, or do they also work in artillery?

Yes, there are women in the brigade, we are gender equal, everything is fine with us. Regarding artillery, in fact, there is no such thing as them working near artillery systems.

Well, let's be honest, 48 kilograms is one projectile for women - I don't want to belittle their achievements, but it's really hard. And they are more likely to hold positions like signalmen, and of course, medical personnel.

But in the drone sector, we have two girls who are unit commanders. That means they manage at least 50 men.

One of them is an aerial reconnaissance unit, and the other is an acoustic reconnaissance unit. So they are actually quite young. One girl seems to have recently graduated from the Army Academy in 2024.

Well, the other one, she is already known in certain circles. Even the enemy has heard about her many times. She has been awarded a medal by the President of Ukraine from his hands. That is, she copes with her duties quite well.

And in what ways can women outperform men?

In fact, if we're talking about intelligence, it's probably the best environment for them in terms of that, because they're more meticulous about everything, they can see more precisely where everything is and how it's located.

In fact, this was noticed repeatedly when we reviewed the materials. We knew that there was a cannon there, but after this girl who was awarded the President of Ukraine's award came, she said: "Don't you see that there is another cannon standing nearby?"

And we're like: "Wait, another one? Well, let's work, let's see. We'll go tomorrow, let's see what's there." That's what happened. Girls are more attentive.

Do you also invite women? For what positions, for example, would it be relevant and vice versa, perhaps you are looking for women for these positions?

Of course, we have a lot of girls who work in the medical field. There are women who work in the field of psychology, because it is also needed. The moral and psychological state of a serviceman is extremely important.

Now, during the war, we all understand that there are many different factors that can degrade him, that can put pressure on him morally when things get tough. And when a person comes along with whom you can talk, open up some topic, discuss, perhaps find some compromises to resolve some issue, women are actually the best fit here.

But there are cases when it is easier to talk to a man, to open up some other topic. Again, as I said, signalmen, they are also needed. And unmanned aerial vehicles, ground robotic complexes - we also invite women to this direction.