The oldest of the gang is their cannon: In eastern Ukraine, six old friends have refurbished an artillery piece from the 1950s and are fighting together on the front lines, "like brothers".
That morning, they are in position near Bakhmout, a town in Donbass ravaged by fighting and which Russian forces have been trying to conquer since the summer of 2022.
The powerful echo of explosions and artillery fire, mortars and Ukrainian and Russian tanks does not cease to resound.
The six accomplices fire with an old S-60 cannon dating from the Soviet era, caliber 57 mm, a device usually displayed as a relic at the entrance to large cities on roundabouts or in front of official buildings.
"The guns you see here are museum pieces. They were stored as scrap metal. So we repaired them, refurbished them and we use them today to protect our native Ukraine," Volodymyr told AFP. , 37, who commands an artillery unit of 36 men and five guns in total.
This weapon was initially used for anti-aircraft defense. From now on, it serves as an artillery piece, firing almost horizontally and attached to the body of a large six-wheeled Ukrainian Kraz truck, itself dating back a few decades and marked with a large white cross, inspired by that of the Bundeswehr, the German army.
"At the beginning, we didn't have a lot of resources. We bought trucks ourselves and thanks to donations from people we knew, volunteers, NGOs," continues the commander.
On the gun carriage, a pointer and a gunner sit like pashas side by side on iron seats. With each shot, they cling to cranks and the shooter fires by giving a powerful pedal stroke with his left leg.
As if he's been doing it his whole life, Tsyl, the shooter, says "just step on the pedal. The recoil of the barrel isn't very important, I feel it more with my hands than with my feet. You have to hold it very tight."
Casual look in their mismatched khaki outfits, graying beard, pronounced wrinkles and sometimes rounded belly, the six inseparable companions do not go unnoticed.
"This unit was created long before all these events (the Russian invasion). I lived with them, I worked with them and we had a lot in common, we even went on vacation together", says Volodymyr.
Weathered face, black eyes, thick beard and hair, rugby player size and Sébastien Chabal physique, Valera, 61, is the oldest of the band, whose average age is around 50 and who has two brothers. .
"We support each other, we replace each other when necessary and, if we argue, we learn to do it in a productive way. So we don't have quarrels and we feel like brothers here" , he said between shots, drinking coffee from a weather-polished aluminum cup.
Most of them met during the 2014 revolution (the Maidan revolution in Kyiv) and became friends.
"There are no difficult days, no easy days (...) I try to support the guys, to find the words. I give support with my words so that others are less afraid", continues Valera.
"It's life, it's war, not a training camp. Anything can happen. But we think our commander is lucky, he's like our guardian angel," adds the sixty-year-old.
The shots are linked, often two in a row, sometimes four.
From the muzzle of the cannon shoots a ball of fire and smoke, the shells whizzing towards their target about 6 km away. On the Kraz, behind the pointer-shooter pair, a third man, the loader, throws the empty ammunition boxes to the ground.
During a pause, small arms fire suddenly cracks. Soldiers try to aim a delta-wing shaped drone high in the blue sky, circling around artillery positions.
"It's a Russian drone," Volodymyr said, ordering his men to leave the area with the truck and its gun.
22/03/2023 12:41:08 - Près de Bakhmout (Ukraine) (AFP) - © 2023 AFP
