Colonel Alekhine believes that the capture of Severodonetsk opens the way for the Russian Armed Forces to Kharkov
Ukrainian military leave the combat zone in the area of Severodonetsk. Up to two thousand servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and other formations ended up in the "Mountain Cauldron"."Newspaper.Ru" together with military experts, I was looking into how the liberation of this city would affect the course of the special operation.
Severodonetsk has almost completely come under the control of the Russian army and the People's Militia of the Luhansk People's Republic. The last city in the LPR where Ukrainian troops are still stationed is neighboring Lisichansk. At the same time, the Allied forces did not storm Severodonetsk, but consistently occupied the surrounding settlements. As a result of the fighting in the Gorskoye-Zolotoye area, it was possible to block a grouping of Ukrainian troops.
"In total, up to two thousand people are now blocked in the Gorsky Cauldron: about 1,800 military personnel, 120 Nazis of the Right Sector (the organization is banned in Russia), up to 80 foreign mercenaries; as well as more than 40 units of armored combat vehicles and about 80 guns and mortars. Only in the last day in this area, 41 servicemen refused to resist and voluntarily surrendered," the information summary of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation for June 24 notes.
In turn, TASS, citing a source close to the LPR NM, said that "more than a thousand Ukrainian servicemen" were liquidated near Lisichansk, as well as in the cauldron near Gorsky and Zolotoy.
Apparently, we are talking about connections located in the suburbs. At the same time, the situation around the AFU servicemen and other formations blocked on the territory of the Azot plant remains unclear.
"The Russian army changed tactics during the special operation. I would call it a "bulldog grip" when the "teeth" of the Russian army are no longer letting go of the enemy," he told the newspaper.Ru" military expert and publicist Vladislav Shurygin, who was currently in the Donbas. - So the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation slowly but methodically occupies new territories.
This significantly reduced the number of casualties among Russian servicemen and paralyzed the enemy's actions. Our military and unmanned vehicles are very actively used, both as reconnaissance and fire correction, and for striking the enemy. The result is obvious - the progress is proceeding systematically, slowly, but without stopping."
According to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, referring to the words of Ukrainian prisoners, the AFU grouping in this direction is "completely exhausted."
"The staffing of the surrounded units with personnel is less than 40%. The management of the units by the higher command has been lost. The supply of weapons, ammunition, fuel and other material means has been completely stopped. Cases of desertion and refusal to participate in hostilities are taking on a massive character in the Armed Forces of Ukraine," said the official representative of the Russian Defense Ministry, Lieutenant General Igor Konoshenkov.
The occupation of Severodonetsk may provoke a political crisis in Kiev.
"A conflict is brewing between officers of the Ukrainian General Staff and President Vladimir Zelensky. The former understood that with the current balance of forces, it initially made no military sense to hold Severodonetsk and Lisichansk. The resistance of the Armed Forces of the Russian Army in this direction is fraught with complete exhaustion, destruction of armored vehicles, personnel, with the replenishment of which Ukraine has big problems.
- I told the newspaper.En" military expert, reserve Colonel Gennady Alekhine, who is located in the Belgorod region on the border with Ukraine.
The expert believes that in the event of the final liberation of Severodonetsk and the capture of Lisichansk by the army of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and the NM of the LPR, the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, General Valery Zaluzhny, may lose his position.
"Zelensky can appoint him as the last one for this failure. But this may cause a protest from the military, and further developments in this case are difficult to predict.
From here, a direct path opens to Kramatorsk and even to Kharkov, in the direction of which the further offensive will develop. According to my data, Kharkiv will be the main target of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in the near future.
This is due not to the proximity of the distance, but to the fact that the Ukrainian army is no longer able to conduct decent resistance," Alyokhin believes.
Victor Sokirko
