MOSCOW, March 17 - RIA Novosti, Andrey Kotz. In three weeks of a special operation in Ukraine, Russian troops, the armies of the DPR and the LPR almost completely cut off the APU from the coast of the Sea of Azov, occupied dozens of settlements in the south of the country, blocked Kiev, Kharkov and Chernihiv in the north. Aviation and precision weapons destroyed the main military infrastructure of the enemy. About the most painful blows - in the material of RIA Novosti.
"On mercenaries — fire"
The Russian Aerospace Forces quickly gained air superiority, and the Navy took control of the Sea of Azov and most of the Black Sea. The Ukrainian air defense system ceased to exist as a whole, and the surviving aircraft were relocated to western airfields.
Demilitarization is proceeding on a grand scale, but very carefully: the Defense Ministry has repeatedly stressed that over four thousand military infrastructure facilities were hit with precision weapons.
It was the "smart" ammunition that hit the notorious Yavorovsky landfill in the Lviv region the other day. Here, since 2015, NATO instructors have been teaching Ukrainian soldiers and officers the tactics of modern combined arms combat. With the beginning of the special operation, the training ground was reclassified into a collection point for Western mercenaries and a transshipment base for European and American weapons arriving daily across the border.
Presumably, X-101 cruise missiles from Tu-160 strategic bombers were used here. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, up to 180 private traders from NATO countries and Ukrainian servicemen, as well as a large batch of Western hardware, were destroyed. According to numerous reports in social networks, "wild geese" are returning home en masse. They realized that fighting with Russia is not the same as fighting with Iraq or Afghanistan.
Foreign mercenaries in Lviv, Ukraine
Image source: © REUTERS / Kai Pfaffenbach
The Kiev authorities were finally convinced: even the western regions are within reach of the Russian army. Moreover, Moscow said that convoys with NATO weapons entering the country from Poland are also considered legitimate targets for pilots and gunners. A blow to the Yavorovsky training ground will significantly complicate the further support of the AFU by the West.
"A special military operation is underway not only along the line of combat contact in Donbass, but also across the entire military infrastructure of Ukraine with the use of high-precision weapons," military expert Alexey Leonkov notes. - Warehouses are being destroyed, the air defense system is suppressed, there is practically no aviation left, Bayraktar drones did not help. The blocking of the group in the Donbass will continue. But nothing threatens the Ukrainian servicemen who lay down their arms."
Missile ultimatum
Another strategically important result is the blockade of Zmeiny Island in the western part of the Black Sea. At first, the Ukrainian border guards refused to disarm. But after several rocket volleys from Russian Navy ships, 82 servicemen surrendered without resistance. Now it is possible to place air defense systems, coastal complexes here and keep an eye on almost the entire Black Sea and part of southern Europe.
At the same time, they attacked the military infrastructure that NATO specialists were creating for Kiev. So, the naval operations center in Ochakov, which is being built with US money, was hit. Formally for Kiev, in fact - for the Americans. It is noteworthy that the 73rd Naval Special Operations Center of the Ukrainian Navy was located nearby. Obviously, saboteurs were being trained there to be thrown into the Russian Crimea.
They also struck at the facilities of the military-industrial complex of Ukraine, so that the AFU could not restore equipment and replenish ammunition. In particular, on March 14, a large Artyom ammunition factory in Kiev and the Impulse enterprise in the Sumy region, the only one in Ukraine that produces detonator caps, electric detonators, detonating cords, were destroyed. Taking into account the fact that most arsenals and warehouses have already blown up, the disabling of these sites will seriously affect the combat capability of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
After Mariupol
On the Donetsk front, the main goal now is Mariupol. The strategically important sea city is still partially controlled by the AFU, and as soon as it is finally cleared of the enemy, the liberated forces will be thrown into the encirclement of the group shelling the capital of the DPR from the west and north.
Servicemen of the People's Militia of the DPR in Mariupol
Image source: © RIA Novosti / Mikhail Andronik
"The next stage of our offensive is Avdiivka and Peski—" said an officer of the DPR army with the call sign Birch. - Ukrainians have been strengthening there for eight long years. Triple defense lane, dug-in equipment, long-term firing points, machine gun nests… Knocking them out will be extremely difficult. But in recent days, Russian aircraft have increasingly attacked enemy positions near Donetsk. The intensity of enemy artillery fire after such "visits" is sharply reduced."
As sources in the Republican army told RIA Novosti, the groups in Donbass were actually beheaded: the heads of the operational commands "North" and "East" Generals Dmitry Krasilnikov and Yuri Solod died last week. From this it follows only one thing: the APU is now capable only of focal resistance.
