西側からの武器「もっと必要」　前線守るウクライナ部隊

【トレツクＡＦＰ＝時事】クライナ東部ドネツク州の最前線。銃声に続き、鋭い爆発音が鳴り響く。ウクライナ軍の突撃歩兵部隊が米国製のグレネードランチャー（擲弾〈てきだん〉銃）をロシア軍の陣地に向けて発射した。（写真は、東部ドネツク州トレツクに近い前線で米国製のＭｋ１９自動擲弾銃を発射するウクライナ兵）
　今年２月、ロシアがウクライナへの全面侵攻を開始し、紛争が激化すると、同地域の前線に西側諸国からＭｋ１９自動擲弾銃などさまざまな武器が届くようになった。
　ウクライナ軍の突撃歩兵部隊第５連隊はこの日、ロシア軍に占領された町ホルリウカを見下ろす丘の林の中にいた。擲弾銃に４０ミリグレネード弾を装填（そうてん）し、背の低い発射器に設置する。
　部隊の兵士の服装はばらばらだった。
　米軍の戦闘服を着た兵士もいれば、フランス軍の防弾チョッキや英国軍の砂漠用迷彩服を着た兵士もおり、サイズが合ったので選んだと話した。
　ロシア軍部隊は８００メートルほど離れた場所に陣取っていた。戦闘機がごう音を立てながら飛んで行く。どちら側のものかは不明だった。頭のかなり上で、銃弾が飛ぶ音がした。
　無線で命令が入り、兵士がＭｋ１９を構え、ロシア軍が攻撃してくる方角に連射した。
　弾が尽きると、兵士は急いで重さ３５キロはあるＭｋ１９を取り外し、ロシア軍の砲撃に備えて後退した。
　ウクライナ軍の兵士にとって、Ｍｋ１９は心強い兵器だ。だが形勢を逆転するほどの威力はない。
　兵士らは、最終的に勝利を収め、ロシア軍を東部から撤退させるには西側からの武器と弾薬がもっと大量に、しかも直ちに必要だと口をそろえた。
　「間違いなく、もっと多くの大砲が要る」と将校は話した。
　「大砲に関してはロシア軍の方が今も優勢なので、反撃しても追いつかない」
　「ここでロシア軍を食い止めなければならないことを欧州に分かってもらう必要がある。欧州に至る前に、ここでだ」と、軍曹はロシア軍をこの前線で打ち破る重要性を訴えた。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2022/10/24-16:57）

First there was a teasing crackle of small arms fire then a burst of sharp bangs as Ukrainian assault infantry fired their US-made grenade launder at the Russian positions opposite.
The frontline in this part of the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine has been fairly stable since 2014, when Moscow's proxy forces in the so-called Donetsk People's Republic (DNR) seized an enclave.
But many Western weapons -- like the Mk-19 automatic grenade launcher -- have only arrived on this battlefield since February this year, when Russia escalated the conflict with a full-scale invasion.
On Wednesday, soldiers of Ukraine's 5th Regiment of Assault Infantry loaded their launcher from a crate of 40 millimetre grenades and set it on its low tripod in a thicket of trees and brush near their position.
Russian troops were dug in less than 800 metres (half-a-mile) away. A jet -- it wasn't clear whose -- roared overhead and then rifle shots rang out and bullets whizzed audibly but harmlessly overhead.
The Russians had taken what the Ukrainians jokingly called the bait.
An order came in over the radio and the Mk-19 operator shouted Glory to Ukraine then opened up, firing a sustained burst of high-explosive grenades toward the source of the incoming gunfire.
The belt of ammo used up, the soldiers scrambled to dismantle the 35-kilogram (77-pound) weapon and to move back to cover, in case the Russian forces decided to respond with an artillery strike.
On a frontline that has remained more-or-less stable for more than eight years, familiar tactics had been shaken up for a few moments by the introduction of a US-made weapon, giving Ukraine a slight edge.
If that seems almost too neat an example of what has happened over recent weeks, when Ukrainian forces have successfully counterattacked Russian forces on several fronts, it also demonstrates the limits of the strategy.
For the men of the 5th Regiment, on one hill overlooking the Russian-held town of Gorlivka, the Mk-19 is a morale booster.
But it is not a game changer.
We definitely need more artillery, said an officer with the 5th, who gave his name as Sergiy.
When it comes to artillery, they still have an advantage so we can't return fire equally.
We are firing more precisely now, but with fewer strikes. Meanwhile, they are not very precise, but they fire more.
- No breakthrough -
The Ukrainian forces fighting along this Donetsk front -- in a line south from the town of Bakhmut through the region's coal-mining villages and conical slag heaps -- have not made any breakthrough.
Russian forces have in recent weeks captured a group of villages south of Bakhmut, and the town and its remaining residents have been under shellfire for months.
The reason, the troops explain, is that the Russian forces here are still supplied from the former separatist enclave -- now claimed as annexed territory by Moscow -- on established routes.
Unlike the Russian troops holding the territories captured this year, who in places crumbled in front of last month's counter-offensive, Moscow's local forces have had experience holding the enclave since 2014.
And Russia's massive superiority in artillery still counts here.
Successful Ukrainian offensives in Kharkiv to the north and Kherson to the south used advanced Western weapons like HIMARS rocket artillery in support of daring armoured manoeuvres to encircle towns.
- Mismatched fatigues -
But, the Ukrainian soldiers say, if they are to win a final victory and expel the Russians from the east, they will need more Western supplied weapons and ammunition -- a lot more -- and quickly.
We have to hold them here, and Europe should understand this. Better to hold them here, and not in Europe, said Sergeant Mykola Lupiy, urging European and US taxpayers to see the value in defeating Russia.
The soldiers of the 5th Assault Infantry wear a mismatch of Western kit.
Some are in US-style fatigues, one has French body armour and another a British set in desert camouflage that he said he chose because it fitted him better.
Most carry one version or another of the Soviet-designed Kalashnikov series of assault rifles, but one has a futuristic-looking Belgian-made FN F2000, which fires NATO's standard 5.56mm ammunition.
The regiment's badge incorporates the familiar outline of the US defence department's Pentagon as a background to the 5th's red lightning bolt -- because we need so many US arms an officer joked.