The four drones and two missiles painted white on the armor are the pride of the Ukrainian crew of the “Cheetah”: they symbolize the Russian targets shot down by the formidable guns of this German anti-aircraft vehicle.
“We have six aerial targets on our counter, including four Shahed (explosive drones) and two cruise missiles” Kalibr, details the crew chief, Roman, 27, muscles bulging under a fitted khaki T-shirt.
“All the targets were shot down at night, except for one missile,” he said.
The Cheetah, with its two long machine guns, is posted on a small wooded hill in the kyiv region. Security obliges, the military asks that the exact location not be revealed.
Berlin has already delivered to kyiv 40 of these armored vehicles, developed in the 1970s and withdrawn from the German army for about ten years. Twelve more and 300,000 rounds are soon to follow.
Along with other systems, often much more modern and supplied by Westerners, the Cheetahs are one of the components of the aerial shield erected by the Ukrainian defense to counter the Russian bombing campaign started in the fall of 2022, on energy sites then large cities, such as the capital Kiev or recently Odessa (south).
“We trained together in Germany for a month and a half, almost a year ago,” continues Roman, the tank commander.
The Cheetah has two 35 mm guns mounted in parallel on either side of a turret, with a rate of fire around 500 rounds per minute. It is equipped with a surveillance radar and another to direct the fire.
“When the computer gives permission to fire, I inform the commander, who opens fire on the target,” explains Oleksiï, 31, the crew’s operator guide.
For Roman, “the computer system allows to eliminate the human factor in terms of errors and to speed up the work, to prepare and take down the targets more quickly”.
Face hidden under a scarf, Oleksiï remembers their first shot down target.
“It was a feeling of joy, of emotion, we shouted, we were happy to have shot down the missile, because it was flying at 600-700 km / hour”, he exults.
Before, “I set fire to cocktails, now I shoot Russian missiles”, jokes this former bartender.
It also evokes the feeling of duty accomplished, with “human lives, infrastructures that have been saved”.
“Each enemy air target shot down is a small victory for us (…), which brings us closer to the big” victory, adds Roman.
Driving a Cheetah, “there is nothing complicated”, assures Oleksandre, 29, the pilot mechanic.
“It’s like driving a car with a steering wheel and an automatic transmission. It’s just a lot bigger,” he said.
Their last missile was shot down in March. Did they miss any targets? “Zero”, responds immediately Roman the tank commander.
Six vehicles destroyed with their armored vehicles in almost a year of presence in the sector, but “the days pass quickly”, assures Oleksandre: “We don’t even notice the time. We wake up, it’s already evening and we have to lie down”.
Mobilized a few months after the Russian invasion of their country in February 2022, they have each had only 12 days off since then.
“I miss it, of course! It’s hard to be away from your family,” said the pilot, who is married and has a 4-year-old girl and a 6-year-old boy.
Oleksiï, the former bartender, “dreams” of opening his own café “after the war, of course, after the victory”.
At the moment, “the main thing in our work is to win (…) We shoot down targets, drones, missiles. Lives are saved. Now all our thoughts are only about service work, c that’s all,” he says.
27/07/2023 12:50:06 – KIEV REGION (Ukraine) (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
