The Russia-NATO proxy war in Ukraine is the largest land conflict in Europe since the Second World War, with the United States and its European allies pouring tens of billions of dollars worth of military equipment, ammunition and supplies into the conflict, and Russia forced to dramatically ramp up its military production to deal with the threat and prevent the hostile bloc from encroaching even closer toward its Western frontiers.
The scale of the crisis has forced both sides to experiment with new armaments, tactics and forms of warfare, taking advantage of technological advances in areas like drones, electronic warfare, new forms of intelligence collection, ultra-high speed missiles, and more.
But while the high-intensity conflict has demonstrated the importance of some new technologies, tactics and weaponry and the waning significance of others, one place where things have remained unchanged is artillery support. Just as it did decades earlier during World War II, timely, precise and effective artillery support has proven crucial in both offensive and defensive operations in the present crisis, as have countries' ability to produce artillery pieces, howitzers, field guns, and the ammo to accompany them.
Helping to make up the backbone of Russia's artillery support forces is the 2A36 Giatsint-B, a powerful 152-mm towed field gun with a range of up to 40 km. First introduced into service with the Soviet military in the mid-1970s, this all-weather, heavy and reliable artillery piece has provided Russian forces with the firepower they need to suppress artillery fire and destroy the enemy.
Check out Sputnik's gallery to follow along with Russian troops stationed in the Krasnolimansk direction in the Donbass as they use these heavy guns: