Ukrainian gunners are defeating Putin’s invaders with British weapons

SQUADS of hero Ukrainian gunners are turning the tide against Vladimir Putin’s invaders — using a mixture of British weapons.

Teams are manning M270 multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS) and L119 howitzers to blitz Russian forces and “change the face of the war”.

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One group using an MLRS, who trained for three weeks on Salisbury Plain, Wilts, were raining death on the occupiers from a vast pine forest hidden from surveillance drones.

The £140,000-a-pop rockets, now running low in Ukraine, can hit a 10ft square target from 52 miles and the launcher is so hated and feared by Russia that the crew have a squad of special forces bodyguards.

The team we met once fired 180 missiles in one day, hitting a Russian HQ, command posts, ammo dumps, armoured vehicles and heavy guns.

Dima, the gun commander, said: “It was the best day we had — the Kharkiv counter-offensive when Lyman was liberated.

“In one hour we fired 40. In some hours we fired six. It was very busy.”

Of the MLRS, he said: “It’s changing the war. Without it, it would have been a lot harder to fight the way we have.

“If they (Russia) knew where we were, they would turn this forest into a desert with missiles, rockets, shells, everything they have.”

The L119 team we met, meanwhile, were using the 105mm light howitzer artillery piece — similar in design to weapons used in World War One — to blast Russian positions in the “meat grinder” battle of Bakhmut.

The troops from the elite 80th Air Assault Brigade, who we joined in a hilltop command bunker, used drones to identify Russian positions before opening fire.

They said the gun was valued because it comes with ample shells.

Soldiers from Ukraine’s 10th brigade, meanwhile, used Soviet era D-30 howitzers to blast Russian infantry outside Soledar in Bakhmut.

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