BRITAIN’S biggest guns are still blasting back Russian invaders despite the White House edict to starve Ukraine of arms.
The Sun joined hero gunners firing a British-made AS90, the biggest gun in Britain’s arsenal — until we gave all 50 of them to Ukraine.
The crew insisted they had enough ammo, for now, and hailed the weapons for their range and precision, despite them being 30 years old.
The self-propelled howitzer — a heavy gun on tracks — fires shells the size of traffic cones more than 15 miles.
We joined troops from Ukraine’s 117th Heavy Mechanised Brigade on the Donbas front as they held off a Russian assault.
They informed us that they had initiated a fierce attack on a Russian mortar position close to the bomb-ravaged town of Pokrovsk. The assault involved a British AS90 utilizing US ammunition in a synchronized offensive alongside other powerful artillery pieces.
Private Pasha, 35, the gun commander, said: “Ammunition? For now, it’s all good.
“We don’t have any limits and if we have a target we will shoot it.”
But how long that lasts is in doubt after Donald Trump halted supplies to Kyiv this week and stopped sharing US military intelligence.
Britain has given Ukraine more than 300,000 artillery shells, mostly sourced from third countries which had Soviet-calibre stockpiles.
Nato heavy artillery uses 155mm shells — a different calibre from Soviet guns.
As a result, the United Kingdom tapped into its reserves to supply 90,000 155mm shells suitable for weapons like the AS90. Furthermore, the Government mandated an extraordinary 800 percent surge in the production of shells within the country.
But that contribution is dwarfed by the US donation of more than three million shells under President Biden.
The AS90 team revealed that the supply of US ammunition was abundant. However, they emphasized that British shells were superior in quality. They specifically reserved these premium shells for high-value targets such as Russian tanks and other significant pieces of enemy artillery.
In an underground bunker where the gun crews live when they are not on missions, Troop Sergeant Ilya told The Sun: “British rounds are the most precise and the best quality.
“They go the furthest, they don’t dirty the barrels.
“They are working well — maybe because they are the native shells for this gun.
“We keep them for the really juicy targets that we can destroy.”
The Royal Artillery says the gun’s range is 24.7km, or just over 15 miles, but Sgt Ilya revealed their longest successful strike was at 29.6km — more than 18 miles — when they hit a Russian Kamaz truck full of ammunition and poorly hidden in a tree line.
He said the quality and quantity of ammunition were equally important, adding: “We want to hit the important targets, but we also need to help our infantry with quantity, so we use British rounds for accuracy and American rounds for volume.”
They also get shells from Europe, with the Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany and Norway all ramping up supply, as well as increasingly from Ukraine’s own growing domestic production.
Gunner Ihor, a 60-year-old former construction worker, said: “We are very grateful for everybody who is helping, especially Britain, America and Europe.
“Without all of their help, it will be really hard to stay on and survive.”
But he insisted Ukraine had endured a shell shortage before — when Republicans in US Congress blocked $61billion of aid from December 2023 to the following April.
Ihor said: “Normally we fire around 60 shells a day, but during the shortage it was down to 20.”
The four-month lull helped Russian troops to gain momentum and they seized the Ukrainian town of Avdiivka.
At the worst points in the war, Russia was firing ten to 12 shells for every one that Ukraine could let loose at the Russians.
But Kyiv has successfully hammered Russian ammunition depots while increasing its own arms supply.
Today, the shell-firing ratio is closer to 2:1 — though still in Russia’s favour.
Ukraine fires around 5,000 shells a day to defend its 630-mile front line, which equates to more than 1.8million a year — a colossal amount, but still not enough to stop Russian forces advancing.
Four days before we arrived, the barrel of an AS90 exploded.
The crew escaped unharmed and replaced it with a working gun almost immediately.
But the gunners complained it would take two months or longer to get the damaged howitzer back in action.
As Sgt Ilya put it: “There is a big queue at the repair shops.”
‘STAND OUR GROUND’
Britain has donated 150 AS90 gun barrels, and the Government is funding a UK barrel factory for the first time in almost 20 years — but production will not start for years.
The British AS90 is something of a battlefield veteran, having first entered service in 1992.
But Sgt Ilya said that, astonishingly, the Ukrainian forces are yet to suffer a “combat loss” since the AS90s first arrived in the country in early 2023.
And that is despite taking part in Ukraine’s ferocious — but ultimately unsuccessful — summer offensive in the city of Zaporizhzhia.
Ilya said: “The most losses we have are because they are old and they break down.”
Moments after they had finished firing, the sound of the guns was replaced by the roar of the AS90’s engine — a 660-horsepower turbo-charged V8 — as it raced to an underground hideout.
When they were based in Zaporizhzhia in 2023, the AS90 crews said they faced almost constant counter-attacks from remote-controlled drones virtually every time they fired a shell.
Now, in the city of Donetsk, around 140 miles away, things are not quite as bad, partly because they have changed their tactics — which they asked The Sun not to reveal — to make the gun much harder for the enemy to find.
And as soon as it was hidden away, Pasha switched on a drone- jamming device to blind Russia’s eyes in the sky.
Before the war, he worked as an agricultural engineer, fixing American John Deere tractors and combine harvesters.
He said: “After that, it is easy to understand how these British AS90s work, and we have a good mechanic in our battery.
“A lot of repairs we do here.”
The biggest threat to him and his comrades is no longer drones, but the devastating glide bombs which Russia has developed by fixing crude but effective guidance systems on to its air-launched munitions.
Gunner Serhii, a 40-year-old electrician in civilian life, said: “Of course we are grateful to America and Europe for their support.
“We hope it will continue.
“But they should know that we have no choice in this.
“We have to stand our ground.
“And if we run out of shells, we will pick up our rifles and fight with whatever we have.”
- Additional reporting: Den Savekov
