武器は旧ソ連製ロケット砲　ウクライナ前線

【ドネツク州ＡＦＰ＝時事】ロシアの戦線から程近いウクライナ東部で、ウクライナ兵数人が野営していた。彼らが待っていたのは、ＢＭ２１「グラート」自走多連装ロケット砲の発射命令だ。（写真はウクライナ東部でロケット弾を発射するＢＭ２１「グラート」自走多連装ロケット砲）
　グラートは旧ソ連で１９６０年代に開発されたもので、第２次世界大戦中にドイツ軍からヨシフ・スターリンにちなんで「スターリンのオルガン」と呼ばれて恐れられた多連装ロケット砲の後継兵器だ。４０連装の１２２ミリロケット砲発射機で、最大で２０キロ離れた標的を攻撃することができる。
　司令部からの命令が下ると、兵士は武器とヘルメット、防弾チョッキをつかみ、グラートが搭載されているトラックの方に駆け出した。ディーゼルエンジンの音をとどろかせながら、猛スピードで野原を突っ走る。
　そして急停止すると、ロケットランチャーを上向きにして旋回させ、最終調整を行った。
　トラックの停車からわずか３分。ロシア語で「あられ・ひょう」を意味するグラートのロケット弾５発が、ごう音と共に連射された。
　ＡＦＰの取材に応じた２３歳の兵士は、指令を受けると「出発し、標的を狙って（野営地に）戻ります」と語った。何を標的にしたかは明らかにしなかった。
　６０年前に開発されたグラートは、現代の紛争でも有用なのだろうか。「役に立つかどうかは使う側の腕によります」と、この兵士は語った。
　「この兵器が今でも効果的なのは、射程が長く、多くの標的を攻撃できるからです」【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2022/10/11-13:40）

For a handful of Ukrainian gunners camping under a clump of trees not far from the Russian lines, the day passes beside a BM-21 Grad rocket launcher waiting for firing orders.
The Soviet-made contraption is the 1960s version of Stalin's Organs, a fearsome World War II-era weapon that terrorised Nazi German soldiers, its 40 tubes able to launch 122 mm rockets that can hit targets up to 20 kilometres (12 miles) away.
Far behind them, Ukrainian guns spray the Russian positions from above.
The latter respond in a relentless artillery duel along the length of the frontline.
Wearing his cap back to front, Maksym, a bearded man in his 30s, explained to AFP that the day was hectic.
This morning they (the Russians) shot at us, not far away. We were forced to go down into the shelters. Now it's calmer, he said to the clatter of artillery exchanges.
The coffee had just been served in plastic cups when the order from command finally arrives.
The men grab their weapons, helmets and bulletproof vests and run towards the truck which takes off with a bang, roaring its powerful diesel engine before rolling at breakneck speed across fields.
- Thundering crash -
Suddenly it stops. The tubes rise, and rotate, as the men make final adjustments.
Only three minutes after the truck stopped, five rockets exit the tubes one by one in a thundering crash.
Each Grad rocket, a word meaning hail, launches a bolt of fire in its wake amid a thick cloud of smoke.
It's time to go: getting spotted by enemy radars risks triggering a quick and destructive response.
As soon as possible, the truck returns to base to take cover, the target remaining confidential to AFP journalists, as do the techniques that allow it to be targeted.
We receive the order, and the target we must strike, said a young 23-year-old officer nicknamed Buk (beech), coincidentally the name of the Russian missile system which in 2014 shot down an airliner over this same region, killing 298 people.
We set off, deal with the target, and return.
Asked about the effectiveness in a modern war of the Grad, a weapon designed 60 years ago, Buk insisted that the effectiveness of the weapon depends on (the skills of) those who use it.
This weapon is still effective because it has a long range and can hit a lot of targets, he added.
It depends how pissed off the Russians are, if they don't leave our infantry alone, we go out a lot more, he said when asked how many times a day they carry out this manoeuvre.
And as for the decision Wednesday by Russian President Vladimir Putin to order a partial mobilisation of 300,000 men, Buk answered bluntly: That will be enough for us to fertilise our land.