Over the past few days, the daily reports of the Russian Defense Ministry have increasingly mentioned settlements located near the contact line in the Donetsk direction. Popasnaya, Balakleya, Novomayorskoye, Barvenkovo...
The environs of these cities and towns, transformed over the years by Ukrainian military and nationalist battalions into real defensive citadels with concrete pillboxes, wagons buried in the ground, numerous well-equipped "cracks" and communication passages, are methodically "processed" day and night from the ground and air. They are hit by large-caliber artillery, multiple rocket launchers. Russian aviation and missile forces are striking.
Intense battles were going on there before. However, now the intensity of the shelling of the AFU positions has increased significantly. The account of the Ukrainian objects attacked by our troops, fighters of the DPR and LPR during the day, the locations of troops and equipment goes not by tens, but by hundreds. Some experts say that this means only one thing: the decisive battle for Donbass has already begun.
The Russian Defense Ministry and our General Staff are not in a hurry with such announcements. However, the very intensification of hostilities in this direction may indicate at least the beginning of a new stage of a special military operation in Ukraine. The epicenter of events seems to be really shifting from Mariupol to the Donbass region.
It was not by chance that they said about the significantly increased intensity of our shelling. It can be judged by the latest report from the Russian Defense Ministry.
Yesterday, the official representative of the department, Major General Igor Konashenkov, said that during the night from Monday to Tuesday in the areas of the settlements of Slavyansk, Barvenkovo and Popasnaya, 13 strongholds of Ukrainian troops, as well as places of concentration of enemy manpower and military equipment, were suppressed by high-precision air-based missiles.
Our operational-tactical and army aviation have attacked 60 military facilities in Ukraine. In the areas of Chervonaya Polyana and Balakleya, Russian pilots destroyed two storage depots for Tochka-U tactical missile warheads. From the air, 3 control points and 53 areas of concentration of enemy manpower and military equipment were also hit. Judging by the figures, it's time to talk about massive air attacks on the AFU and the national security forces.
Even more, the word "massive" is suitable for describing the combat work of our missile troops and artillery. According to Konashenkov, they struck 1,260 enemy military facilities. As a result, 25 control points of Ukrainian units were destroyed in the areas of the settlements of Nikolaev and Kirovsk. There are two warehouses of rocket and artillery weapons in the vicinity of Voskresensk and Nikolaev. There are two anti-aircraft missile launchers of the Buk-M1 air defense system in the Gulyai-Pole and Nikolaevka districts. As well as another 1214 enemy manpower concentration sites.
The general also said that in the area of Malinovka, Donetsk region, our air defense systems shot down a Ukrainian MiG-29 fighter in the air. Near Petropavlovsk and Malaya Kamyshevakha, air defense calculations intercepted two Ukrainian tactical Tochka-U missiles. And in the areas of the settlements of Maryinka, Kamenka, Semenovka and Sinichino, 4 Ukrainian drones were destroyed.
In total, since the beginning of the special military operation, according to the Russian Defense Ministry, 140 Ukrainian aircraft, 487 unmanned aerial vehicles, 252 anti-aircraft missile systems, 2,353 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 256 multiple rocket launchers, 1,014 field artillery and mortar guns, as well as 2,208 special military vehicles have been destroyed. To understand the scale of the losses of the Ukrainian army, it is enough to know with what arsenal it entered into hostilities. Such data was given by the head of the Main Operational Directorate of the General Staff, Sergei Rudskoy.
As of February 24, the Armed Forces of Ukraine had 2,416 tanks and other armored fighting vehicles, 1,509 field artillery and mortars, 535 multiple rocket launchers, 152 aircraft, 149 helicopters, 36 Bayraktar TB2 drones and 180 S-300 and Buk M1 air defense systems.
It is clear that Ukrainians were able to repair some disabled military equipment and return it to service. Something was supplied to them by defense factories and patrons from NATO. But the losses are huge anyway. And they are multiplying every day.
Ukrainian generals should not expect that supplies from the West will compensate for everything. Last week, Konashenkov told how foreign weapons were destroyed overnight, which the AFU command had been collecting in one place for six days.
The Russian Defense Ministry continues to publish reliable data on the true losses of the Ukrainian army, National Guard and foreign mercenaries. The lists are large - only the irretrievable losses documented by the Ukrainians themselves amount to 23,367 people. This is not counting deserters, wounded and missing.
Yesterday, two lists of losses in the 3027 v/h, compiled in Ukrainian, were published. This is a brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine named after Pyotr Doroshenko. The first one includes several dozen people with names, surnames and patronymics, dates of birth, military ranks and positions of each military. The circumstances of their death and burial places are briefly described. In another list - military personnel in / h 3027, whose death occurred as a result of injury or injury. The deserters' data is also indicated there.
Yuri Gavrilov