In May 2022, up to a hundred young men and women were killed a day at the front, in addition to up to 300-400 wounded, Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov told the BBC Ukraine.
"Then the enemy's advantage was the biggest, especially in the Donbas direction - they used up to 1,000 artillery shells per hour. There was insane pressure, and we had no way to respond to them: we didn't have that much ammunition," Reznikov said.
He noted that after that came M777 howitzers, then M109s, Caesars, Panzerhaubitze and so on - and they made a big difference.
The counter-battery efforts immediately reduced the intensity of the fire.
"And once the well-known HIMARS arrived - then you know when we hit their formations and command centres precisely, very clearly - it starts to change the battle picture very significantly," the defence minister added.
He expressed the hope that partners would continue to send us additional HIMARS and M270 MLRSs, of which three have already arrived.
As reported earlier, that the first US-made M270 multiple rocket launchers have already arrived in Ukraine.