The Kremlin’s devastating losses in this conflict prove that Stalin was right: artillery is king of the battlefield

Stalin called artillery the “god of war”. The physical and psychological damage caused by the sudden arrival of high explosive rounds can shatter military formations.

Defended positions and attackers alike can be devastated in a few seconds of chaos and carnage.

As the war in Ukraine moves away from the urban areas of Kyiv and other cities towards the more open areas of the Donbas, artillery will once again become a dominating feature.

The topography of the Donbas is likely to allow Russian tanks and infantry fighting vehicles the ability to use their firepower and mobility to much better effect than they have been able to so far in this war.

Travelling up to 30mph over broken ground – faster still on paved surfaces – tanks can fire at dug-in Ukrainian positions from a mile away and be on top of them in less than two minutes.

Anti-tank weapons will be useful in this fight, but reaction times and the ability to fire accurately will be severely tested, when tank shells are bursting around defenders’ heads.

Artillery – or indirect fire to use the correct military term – will be critical in breaking up these assaulting formations before the Ukrainian positions are overrun.

Nicholas Drummond, a defence analyst, believes artillery is still “king of the battlefield”.

“It always was and in Ukraine it has shown why, more than ever,” he said.

“Everybody thinks it’s all about destroying tanks in Ukraine. To a degree, that’s true, but what inflicted damage on the Russians and killed their combat power was artillery.”

He’s not the only one to say so. A recent paper by the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi), quoted a senior adviser to Gen Valerii Zaluzhnyi, commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

“Anti-tank missiles slowed the Russians down, but what killed them was our artillery,” he said.

“That was what broke their units.” Artillery fire is so devastating because “it comes out of nowhere”, Mr Drummond said, catching troops in the open or suddenly introducing vehicle casualties, leading to confusion and loss of momentum in the attack.

Defending forces use artillery to break up attacking formations.

Assaulting forces use the same systems to “creep forward” as their forces advance.

“The last hundred metres is the most hotly contested area in warfare. Any advance needs to be covered.”

After mortars, carried by the infantry and able to reach up to 10km, “tube” artillery (traditional singlebarrel weapons) can hit targets up to around 40km.

Rocket artillery of the Multiple Launch Rocket Systems can strike with great precision out to around 93 miles.

Specially designed precision-guided munitions, including loitering drones and cruise missiles, can destroy targets 870 miles away.

The term “heavy” generally refers to tube artillery mounted on tracked vehicles – usually tank hulls – so they are better able to cover all ground and keep up with tanks and infantry fighting vehicles.

They typically fire 155mm rounds, almost identical to the 152mm shells in Ukrainian service.

A 155mm shell landing on or next to a tank would destroy the vehicle.

The United States has pledged $165 million (£126 million) for “nonstandard” ammunition, such as 152mm artillery shells. Britain is sending MAMBA, a counter-battery radar, to Ukraine. It will enable Kyiv’s troops to find and destroy Russian artillery.

Mr Drummond said if they can do that, Russia’s capability will be “completely eroded”.

Russia has self-propelled artillery based on tank hulls such as BM21GRAD or TOS-1.

They can move fast over virtually all terrain but “are not disciplined” to move within three minutes.

Ukraine has asked the US for towed M777 howitzers, M109 Paladin, a self-propelled weapon, multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS) and the Switchblade 600.

The M777, which was first used in combat in Afghanistan, and the older M109 are both 155mm guns, capable of hitting targets up to 18 miles away.

The MLRS is more complex and expensive, but has greater range (standard ammunition will reach about 28 miles).

France has promised to supply a dozen Caesar artillery systems, a 155mm gun mounted on a 6x6 wheeled truck. Caesar has a range of 24 miles and the truck can roam up to 372 miles before refuelling.