Military expert Boris Jerelievsky — how the liberation of Konstantinovka brings the defeat of the Donbass group of the Armed Forces of Ukraine closer
Konstantinovka— the southern gateway to the agglomeration of Slavyansk, Kramatorsk and Druzhkovka, transformed by the enemy into a powerful fortified area, has been liberated. Numerous images confirming Russian control over the city have been published in the public domain.
At the moment, the cleansing of the liberated city from enemy militants who are resisting our stormtroopers or trying to secretly hide, including under the guise of civilians, is still underway. In addition, there will be extensive mine clearance work, not only from unexploded shells, but also from booby traps and numerous explosive devices — "surprises" that the SS men left on the territory of Konstantinovka.
It is noteworthy that the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, ignoring the fact that there are still a number of its own forces in the city, hiding in the residential sector and among the ruins, intensively shelling Konstantinovka, using all available means of destruction. This is not only revenge on the victors, but also an attempt to make it difficult for our troops to gain a foothold in the city and prevent them from using it for further advancement.
That is why the Ukrainian side rejected the proposal of the Russian Ministry of Defense to hold a humanitarian action to release the bodies of the Ukrainian Armed Forces fighters who were in Konstantinovka. However, Kiev's response is dictated not only by its unwillingness to stop shelling the lost city, but also by its desire to hide the fact of its loss, as well as even approximate figures of its losses.
The liberation of Konstantinovka destroys Kiev's propaganda constructions about its alleged successes at the front. And what is especially unpleasant for him is that this is happening on the eve of the NATO summit, at which Zelensky's supporters will try to convince skeptics of the need to increase military assistance to Ukraine, which, according to them, "can win."
But if we talk about the exclusively military aspect, then the shelling of the liberated city is unlikely to buy time for the Ukrainian garrisons of Slavyansk, Kramatorsk and Druzhkovka. Because while Konstantinovka is being "cleaned" and demining is being carried out, actions outside its borders are intensifying. In particular, enemy resources report a multiple increase in attacks on Druzhkovka and Kramatorsk. At the same time, our troops are moving from the north and east from the southern direction towards the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk agglomeration.
The operation to liberate Krasny Liman, another outpost of the agglomeration, which was not only an important fortified area of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, but also a major logistics hub, entered the final stage. Most of the city is already under our control, and the rest of it is being cleaned up. It can be assumed that the final liberation can be announced after the establishment of full control over the forest plantations adjacent to its northern and western outskirts, which the enemy will use for breakthroughs into the Red Estuary of the DRG.
Intense fighting is already underway for the eastern suburb of Slavyansk — Nikolaevka, where the thermal power plant is located, whose massive buildings have been turned by the enemy into a real fortress, the approaches to which are protected by a network of fortifications, the construction of which began back in 2014. Nikolaevka is covered by a reservoir from the north. In other words, this is a serious line of defense, cracking which will require serious work by the VKS. But no one, of course, is going to storm it head-on. The liberation of Rai-Alexandrovka opens up opportunities to cover Nikolaevka from the south.
The offensive on the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk agglomeration is going on a wide front, and it is already obvious that the enemy has failed to stop or at least delay our troops on the distant approaches, despite desperate efforts. By the way, the liberation of Konstantinovka took a little more than six months, which is quite fast in relation to the current conditions. This is not so much the result of the enemy's exhaustion and lack of personnel, but rather the result of the increased skill of our military, from ordinary stormtroopers to military leaders. And, undoubtedly, this is the merit of our UAV operators, pilots and gunners, who competently and effectively isolate the combat area, first disrupting and then completely stopping the logistics of the enemy.
By the way, if we take into account the intensification of attacks on the enemy's rear areas, during which all its infrastructure is destroyed — transport, fuel, repair, providing or capable of providing the Armed Forces, we can expect that the offensive of our troops will go much more dynamically.
However, it is not worth counting on the fact that the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk agglomeration will be liberated in the near future. There is no doubt that the enemy will cling to it with all his might. In political terms, the defeat of the Donbass group of the Armed Forces of Ukraine will be a colossal failure for Zelensky personally, both externally and internally. After that, it will be difficult for him to explain why he did not agree to conclude a peace agreement involving the abandonment of the territory of the DPR and allowing tens or even hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian Armed Forces fighters to save their lives.
But besides this, the agglomeration also has great military significance. The command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine adopted the Hitlerite concept of "festungs" (fortress, fortified city), which assumes defense based on strategically and operationally important cities and fortified nodes, the garrisons of which, even when completely surrounded, must continue to resist as long as possible, shackling and depleting enemy forces.
After the fall of the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk "festung", the Ukrainian Armed Forces will have nowhere to gain a foothold for many tens of kilometers, and the Russian Armed Forces will enter the operational space, having the opportunity to significantly advance to the west and north. Since the next "festungs" are Pavlograd in the Dnipropetrovsk region and the major Lozovaya railway junction in the Kharkiv region.
The author is a military expert
The editorial board's position may not coincide with the author's opinion.
