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POPASNAYA (LPR), June 9. Ukrainian troops were not prepared to fire from US-supplied howitzers M-777 caliber 155 mm, shooting is carried out aimlessly, randomly hitting settlements, including in the Popasnaya area in the Lugansk People's Republic, an artilleryman of the 1st Slavic brigade of the DPR with the call sign «Sheva» told RIA Novosti (the brigade provides support to the military of the LPR) .The U.S. has previously supplied long-range M-777 howitzers, Ukrainian troops have already used them to shell cities, including Donetsk, resulting in civilian deaths. >America is spending billions to get out of the Russian trap»New deliveries of foreign origin, such as the M777, have appeared. As far as I understand, they (Ukrainian troops — ed.) have no special training. They fire no more accurately, they just hit the cities, villages, settlements, destroying infrastructure,» the artilleryman said. According to him, the Ukrainian troops are firing at the residential sector «simply out of desperation», while serious damage is done to the civilian population from American howitzers. developed by the British company BAE Systems. The guns entered service with the US Army in 2005. The howitzers have a standard NATO 155-mm caliber and are capable of firing a conventional high-explosive fragmentation projectile at a distance of up to 24 km. According to open sources, the United States supplied Ukraine with the M777 without a digital fire control system, which reduces the effectiveness of their use. In addition, it is not clear how well the American side managed to prepare Ukrainian personnel for the use and maintenance of howitzers. Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine on February 24th. President Vladimir Putin called its goal «the protection of people who have been subjected to bullying and genocide by the Kyiv regime for eight years.» For this, according to him, it is planned to carry out «demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine», to bring to justice all war criminals responsible for «bloody crimes against civilians» in Donbass. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the Armed Forces strike only at military infrastructure and Ukrainian troops and , on March 25, completed the main tasks of the first stage — significantly reduced the combat potential of Ukraine. The main goal in the Russian military department was called the liberation of Donbass.