MOSCOW, 30 Mar — RIA Novosti, Andrey Kotz.The Russian military and units of the DPR army completely cleared the outskirts of Mariupol from the enemy, knocked it out of residential development and blocked the main part of the garrison — up to seven thousand nationalists — at the Azovstal plant. As soon as the city finally comes under the control of the DPR, a large-scale operation will begin to destroy the Ukrainian group in the Donbass. About what it is — in the material of RIA Novosti.
Get into the cauldron
At the beginning of the military special operation, the DPR army was advancing south to Mariupol. The command understood that an attack by a 60-70-thousandth enemy group head-on would result in huge losses. The most combat-ready units and formations of the AFU are located to the northwest and west of Donetsk. It is from there that the capital of the DPR and the nearest settlements are regularly shelled.
During the eight years of the war, the Ukrainian security forces turned their defense line in the Donbass into one large fortified area with concrete fortifications, long-term firing points, a wide network of trenches and minefields. Here are the most trained, trained and motivated units and most of the serviceable equipment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. And while the group is combat-ready, the DPR remains under attack.
"We will not hack their defenses in a hurry," an officer of the DPR army with the call sign Klim told RIA Novosti. — The task is to take the enemy group into the environment. The southern lid of the boiler should be slammed shut by the troops that will be released after the capture of Mariupol. From the north — the units of the Russian army that took the Raisins. Very soon they will move to Slavyansk and Kramatorsk, where the headquarters of the Ukrainian forces in the Donbass is located. As soon as the northern and southern groups unite, the enemy will have nowhere to go."
A Ukrainian serviceman on the contact line in Donetsk region
Image source: © Photo : Ukrainian Joint Forces Operation Press Service
According to republican intelligence, the command of Ukrainian units has repeatedly requested permission from Kiev to withdraw to the west. However, the General Staff refuses. This is understandable: in equipped positions, the troops will still be able to provide organized resistance for quite a long time. And on the march in the middle of the Donetsk steppes, army columns are an easy target for Russian aviation and missile weapons.
Elite units
The LPR army has already liberated 95 percent of the republic's territory. The enemy remained only in a few settlements. The main units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the National Guard are concentrated in the DPR. Perhaps it is here that the decisive battle of the entire special operation will take place. The republic is convinced that the defeat of the Donetsk group will cause irreparable damage and force Kiev to capitulate. The enemy is, in fact, doomed. The Ukrainian units in Donbass lack food, water, medicines and ammunition. Russian aviation hits the supply lines every day.
However, the enemy will not give up without a fight. Opposite Gorlovka, to the north of Donetsk, the 95th separate airborne assault brigade occupies positions. This unit has a rich combat experience, military personnel, in addition to Donbass, participated in a peacekeeping mission in Iraq. The arsenals contain the most modern weapons: modernized T—80BV tanks, Humvee, Spartan, Dozor-B armored vehicles, BTR-3GA armored personnel carriers, Western-made anti-tank complexes.
South of Gorlovka, to the northwest of Donetsk, the 25th separate parachute brigade operates and with impunity hits the Kiev and Petrovsky districts of the DPR capital with artillery from Avdiivka. It is extremely difficult to smoke them out of there, since the positions were equipped at a local coke plant. An inaccurate strike threatens an environmental catastrophe for the entire region.
A soldier of the Armed Forces of Ukraine
Image source: © REUTERS / Press service of the Ukrainian Ground Forces/Irina Rybakova
To the west of Donetsk, in the village of Peski, the 56th separate motorized infantry brigade was entrenched. It consists of a full—fledged tank battalion. And to the southwest of Donetsk - the 54th separate motorized infantry brigade with a large number of large—caliber artillery, for example 152-mm self-propelled guns "Acacia".
South of Donetsk, near Dokuchaevsk, there were the 53rd separate mechanized brigade and the 36th separate Marine Brigade. During the Mariupol offensive, the DPR army seriously battered them, destroying and capturing a lot of military equipment. The remnants retreated to Mariupol, where they joined with the nationalists of the Azov regiment. In addition, the 81st separate airmobile brigade, stationed in Konstantinovka and Druzhkovka in the north-west of the DPR, remains in the second echelon.
Uncontrolled nationalists
The whole group, which significantly outnumbered the Republican army, was actively preparing for a forceful solution to the Donbass problem. Since the beginning of the year, reinforcements have been transferred to the front, ammunition and fuel stocks have been created, and the gray zone has been actively explored. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the combat coordination of units and formations was to be completed by February 28. And already in March, the group would have gone on the offensive, defeated the DPR troops in open battles and captured Donetsk. The Russian army was ahead of the Ukrainian army by a few days.
"When it is announced that Mariupol has been completely cleared, it will seriously undermine the morale of the Ukrainian military," said the official representative of the DPR army Eduard Basurin. — Sooner or later they will finally come to the conclusion that the military-political leadership of Ukraine has simply thrown them to the slaughter here. I hope that this realization will come to the enemy quickly and he will resist less. And ideally, he will voluntarily lay down his arms."
However, the nationalists, according to him, are extremely reluctant to throw out the white flag. In the Mariupol direction, servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine who wished to surrender were repeatedly shot in the back. Mikhail Sheremet, a State Duma deputy from the Crimean region, believes that President Vladimir Zelensky has actually lost control over nationalist battalions that do not follow orders from Kiev and act based on their own interests.
