2024-07-14 04:02:27
Ukrainian soldiers report that the Russians have increased the intensity of their attacks on the front in the Donetsk region and are trying to break through the defense lines. The unit of the 110th Independent Mechanized Brigade, which operates the Czech-made Vampire mobile rocket launcher, is also trying to contain the aggressor near the strategic city of Pokrovsk.
The RM-70 Vampire rocket launcher can fire up to 40 122-millimeter missiles in one salvo. | Video: Reuters
The Ukrainians are preventing the enemy from getting towards Pokrovsk, Kramatorsk and Kostyantinivka. “They are trying to break through everywhere, in different places. They have more people,” 36-year-old artilleryman Ilja told Reuters. The Russians are trying to force the Ukrainians to stretch out along the front line and thereby weaken it, so they attack at different points of the front at the same time.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi, who visited the region at the end of June, understood the urgency of the situation. He subsequently issued an instruction to prioritize the front line near Pokrovsk, which has recently seen a significant increase in the number of Russian attacks.
According to the defenders, attempts to break through the aggressors’ lines are costly. The 58-year-old commander of an artillery unit with the call sign Tur estimated that his brigade alone killed or wounded 50 to 150 Russian soldiers each day. “They will pay in blood for every meter of Ukrainian land. The only problem we have is the lack of soldiers. We have more than enough ammunition and weapons,” said Tur, who commands the unit using the Czech-made weapon.
The RM-70 Vampire rocket launcher can fire up to 40 122-millimeter missiles in one salvo. Ukrainians praise it all the time this weapon is holding back the Russians. “That machine is really a beast. When it fires a full salvo, the experience is indescribable,” claimed Ivan, a member of another Ukrainian crew, last year.
“Three or four minutes and we’re ready, we’re waiting for the command: Fire!”, crew commander Pavlo described working with the Czech rocket launcher in 2023. Since the beginning of the war, several RM-70 systems in various variants have traveled to Ukraine from the Czech Republic.
These salvo rocket launchers, which were introduced to the Czechoslovak army in 1971, have a range of up to 20 kilometers. They are mainly used for fire coverage of large areas. The Vampire is a modernized version of the RM-70 with new electronic systems, mounted on the Tatra 815 chassis.