DONETSK, November 6. /TASS/. The Ukrainian military is not yet able to operate sophisticated NATO weaponry themselves, that is why Western experts act as troop commanders, Lieutenant Colonel of the People's Militia and the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) lawmaker Andrey Bayevsky told TASS.
"As for the 155 mm caliber guns or the same [US-made multiple launch rocket systems] HIMARS - this is already quite a sophisticated type of weaponry. It is impossible to retrain personnel in one or two months so that they can start using it. That is, they can, they will fire it somewhere, but they will not be able to use it properly in terms of conducting an effective fire attack. That is why we regularly record that with each weapon that is more or less technically complicated the real calculation commander is a Western expert," the official said.
According to him, the Ukrainian armed forces have already mastered simpler weapons in operation. "The simplest types of equipment can be used after a short training course. And no one expects them to be used very effectively. The 60 mm mortars that are supplied to battalions on the front lines, for example, are primitive weapons that can be learned to use within a week. And they are supplied, they have been using them since about 2016, I already saw the characteristic shanks after the shelling of Staromikhailovka and the Petrovsky district of Donetsk," Bayevsky noted.
He explained that the process of training artillerymen is complicated and takes a long time. "It is not just one person to teach, the combat training program of artillery units includes the cohesion of the calculation, platoon, battery, battalion. You train a specialist first, you do the specialized training, then you train the formation, then you train the platoon, then the battery and so on. And all of this together only works as a viable organism when this sequence is followed. Until then, at best one gun can fire in the direction of a major city. But this, as you understand, is not about war and not about combat operations, but about terrorism," the People's Militia representative stressed.