DIVYCHKY, Ukraine — Ukraine’s Armed Forces have defined their best artillery crews after week-long matches at a firing range located near the village of Divychky in Kyiv Oblast some 60 kilometers southeast of Kyiv.
The servicemen were competing between Oct. 21 and Nov. 1 to demonstrate their skills in mastering mortars and artillery cannons and in multiple-launch rocket systems.
The 30th Mechanized Brigade turned out having the army’s most combat-effective mortar battery, while the 26th Artillery Brigade demonstrated the best results with both tubed and self-propelled howitzers. The airborne gunmen from the 81st Airmobile Brigade became the best ones in rocket artillery, for the second time in a row.
Each winner crew has been awarded Hr 150,000 ($5,600) certificates, and their servicemen will be recommended for promotion.
Overall, 12 teams belonging to Ukraine’s ground, airborne, and naval troops have participated in the annual matches this year.
By now, Ukrainian army keeps possessing powerful artillery forces, with every fourth serviceman in its ranks belonging to a certain category of ordnance, Ukraine’s president Petro Poroshenko claimed in his speech during the award ceremony. It is gunmen who account for more than 70 percent of the combat fire tasks of the Ukrainian troops that fight for the Ukrainian land rebuffing the aggressor in the east of our country, he also said.
At the same time, according to the president, 1,591 Ukrainian gunners have been decorated for bravery and heroism in combat.
As many as 317 artillerists were killed in action in Russia’s war on Ukraine in Donbas.
“You have been taken away from the delimitation line, but you must be ready to go back there at any time and join the battle if it is dictated by the needs of the defense,” Poroshenko told servicemen during a parade dress.
After the award ceremony, winning crews performed long-distance firing upon hypothetic targets located some 2,000 meters away.
