Sharjah24 - AFP: A T-64 tank emerges menacingly from its cover under camouflage netting in the frozen fields of the eastern Donbas area of Ukraine, turning the snow into mud beneath its tracks.
The rusting Soviet-era hulks have led the Ukrainian fight-back against Russian forces, firing directly at enemy positions unseen a short distance away or deep behind their lines.
Gunner Igor Khonko, whose job it is to set the targets and fire, is in little doubt about the key role played by the 1st Tank Brigade in nearly 12 months of bitter fighting.
"For me I see this war as more of an artillery war and of heavy weapons, not infantry," he told AFP, as the thud of heavy guns close by shattered the morning air.
"Of course, there is infantry fighting but the main thing is artillery, tanks and air power," he added.
"I think that the course of the war will be changed when we receive heavy weapons: tanks, armoured personnel carriers and long-distance rockets."
After weeks of stalling, Ukraine's Western backers have finally agreed to supply it with the latest modern battle tanks, which President Volodymyr Zelensky believes could be decisive in the restive east.
For Khonko, 26, they can't come soon enough. But a more pressing need is a fresh stock of munitions.
"At the moment we're lacking shells. At some parts of the front, you use tanks more than artillery," he said.
"It can happen that you shoot 28 shells within 10 minutes... So once you're finished, you have to go back to get new ones."
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