“For me I see this war as an artillery war and a war of heavy weapons, not an infantry war,” he told AFP, as the rumble of heavy guns shattered the morning air.
“Of course, there is infantry fighting but the main thing is artillery, tanks and air power,” he said.
“I think the course of the war will change when we get heavy weapons: tanks, armored personnel carriers and long-range rockets.”
After weeks of wallowing, Ukraine’s Western backers have finally agreed to supply it with the latest modern battle tanks, which President Volodymyr Zelensky believes could be a breakthrough in the troubled east.
For Khonko, 26, they can’t come soon enough. But a more pressing need is fresh stockpiles of ammunition.
“At the moment we are short of shells. In some parts of the front, you use more tanks than artillery.
“It may happen that you fire 28 shells within 10 minutes… then once you finish, you have to go back to get new ones.”