Dmytro Zhuk, senior sergeant of an artillery platoon and commander of a CAESAR gun with the Zhytomyr-based 148th Artillery Brigade of the Ukrainian Air Assault Forces, said this in an interview with Ukrinform.

"We engage whatever we can reach, and we can reach targets at a long distance – up to 40 km. Our gun is quite accurate. Now we mostly work against enemy personnel and launch sites for their FPV drones and UAVs. These are our priority targets," Zhuk said.

The howitzer crew consists of four service members. They are accompanied on missions by a mobile fire team of two soldiers who provide air cover while the gun is in operation.

According to the commander, drone activity currently has a significant impact on the mobility of CAESAR self-propelled howitzers.

Zhuk previously operated the Soviet-made Akatsiya self-propelled howitzer, but switched to CAESAR in 2023.

"I liked the new self-propelled howitzer immediately. It is more effective than the Akatsiya. I just drive, and the computer shows me the firing direction. We fire from near some tree line, then move somewhere else and hide. And while they [the Russians] are launching something into the sky to find us, we are already moving to another settlement and starting to operate from there," the artilleryman said.

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The serviceman noted that the CAESAR is highly accurate, destroying and striking targets. He recalled several combat episodes that he is particularly proud of.

In particular, during the Zaporizhzhia counteroffensive, the artillerymen spent a day and a half driving Russian forces out of buildings so that Ukrainian assault troops could enter the settlement. The area was dangerous, as the enemy was constantly opening fire from windows. The artillery worked so effectively against the enemy that the defenders entered the settlement without using small arms.

"Another incident that comes to mind happened in the spring of last year, when the Russians wanted to advance on Andriivka in the Donetsk region. Almost a battalion of armored vehicles and personnel was moving in, and our artillery began engaging them. They were running out into the open field and simply fleeing back. Vehicles were burning everywhere, and there were piles of their dead lying on the ground. It was like a scene from an apocalyptic movie," Zhuk said.

Photo provided by Dmytro Zhuk