A picture posted on Twitter by one of the soldiers fighting on the side of Ukraine against invading Russian forces shows the overwhelming advantage they enjoyed in the early stages of the war.

Russian howitzers lined up in a firing positionPhoto: Twitter – Kriegsforscher

The photo was shared on his Twitter page by “Kriegsforscher” – this is the nickname in the social network of a serviceman who is part of the intelligence unit of the Air Force of Ukraine.

“Look at this photo. 16 152-mm self-propelled howitzers 2С19 in a firing position. Izyum district. April,” the soldier notes.

“I said several times that spring was the most difficult period. In my humble opinion, April and May were the most difficult months of our war. Complete superiority of Russian artillery. I personally felt it when 6 howitzers of the 152nd brigade are firing at you, and you only have one mortar,” he said in a series of posts on his Twitter page, also sharing a short video about it.

“They had (still have) more artillery, ammunition, tanks, etc. They were constantly shooting at us. And we did not have time to destroy them. Full advantage. What could the Armed Forces of Ukraine do? Resist and bite. Step by step. The Russian disaster in Kharkiv region began much earlier than September,” says Kriegsforscher.

He then presents some satellite photos showing the combat units brought by the Russians during the Liman attack in May: 25 Msta-B 152mm howitzers, 9 2C19 152mm self-propelled howitzers, 3 2C3 152mm self-propelled howitzers, two 2C7 203 self-propelled howitzers mm self-propelled howitzers, 27 tanks, 3 multiple rocket launchers and others.

Pro-Russian separatists in Donetsk announced the capture of Lyman, a key railway hub in the region, on May 27.

Artillery superiority, the main asset of the Russians during the spring and summer

“It was very difficult to resist their artillery. Their drones were flying all the time. Their artillery fired everywhere, not knowing whether the target was hit or not,” the military reported.

We will recall that numerous reports of that time spoke of the overwhelming advantage of the Russians in artillery and firepower, key elements of the Russian army in offensive operations that led to the capture of the cities of Lyschensk and Severodonetsk.

“Now the situation has changed. A little bit We still need a lot of ammunition and artillery. But I feel that the situation is changing. And in some areas of the front, we can dictate the situation,” says Kriegsforscher.

The Ukrainian army liberated the town of Liman on October 1, just a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin declared that the Ukrainian territories he had annexed would be Russia’s “forever”.

Kriegsforscher says it was prompted to release the images after a Ukrainian military official posted several photos on Twitter showing modern Russian army artillery being destroyed by Western-sourced weapons.

“And what was it like when we didn’t have many modern Western systems?” he asks rhetorically.

In a new analysis published Wednesday, General Mick Ryan explained that a possible weakening of Western support for Ukraine poses the greatest danger to Kyiv.

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