it's war, of course they are going to throw everything they can to keep up their defensive line, if not take more land. 1 dude in a T-55 firing artillery, regardless of accuracy or efficiency, is more likely to survive than a mortar squad. not to mention the munitions are cheap as dirt since they built fuck-you levels of ammo during the cold war.
Western militaries love to spend $50k on a guided munition to destroy the target in one shot. Russia's equally valid approach of "Have 50 archaic tanks blanket the entire field with HE from obsolete shells" is likely a tenth that price. And afterward Russia has 49 tanks left and Ukraine is out an irreplaceable $50k munition and their towed artillery is dead to boot.
Russia has the Krasnopol guided artillery munition. Similar to the Excalibur, but it can hit a moving tank (up to 36km/h) and it's cheaper (30K).
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