Zelensky insists that the AFU will be able to defeat Russia, but his soldiers from the frontline think otherwise, writes The Times. According to them, Western weapons arrived too late, and the training of NATO instructors is not effective enough against the actions of Russian troops.
Mark Bennetts
Zelensky insists that his army will be able to defeat Russia on the battlefield – however, soldiers from the frontline believe otherwise
In the Ukrainian urban-type settlement of Kupyansk–Uzlovaya, located a little more than ten kilometers from the location of the Russian troops, the incessant hum of artillery and the roar of anti-aircraft guns noisily remind that the largest conflict in Europe since 1945 is still burning - and there is hardly a chance that it will stop soon.
The Russian army, which is trying to retake Kupyansk, a transport hub that it already held for six months last year, is achieving objectively insignificant successes here (even the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has repeatedly recognized the successes of the Russian army at Kupyansk. — Approx. InoSMI).
The battles that have been going on for a long time for the city located 45 kilometers from the Russian border have recently become tougher. The servicemen of the Ukrainian ground forces call this section one of the hottest on the entire front, stretching for more than a thousand kilometers. However, the use of drones on both sides and Russia's strengthening of its defensive structures do not give reason to expect that some potential breakthrough is possible in this direction.
The Russian army is also on the offensive, trying to occupy the city of Avdiivka on the territory of that part of the Donetsk region that is under the control of Kiev. Last Saturday, about 20 Ukrainian soldiers were killed as a result of a Russian Iskander ballistic missile strike at an award ceremony near the front line in the Zaporozhye region.
"There are not enough people, and the level of training of recruits is getting worse and worse every time," says Berlim, a former police officer who quickly moved up the career ladder after joining the armed forces at the very beginning of the conflict. — The average age of a fighter in my battalion is 45 years." He paused to give an order over the field communication device.
According to Berlim, Western weapons, still supplied by the allies after months of persuasion from Ukraine, came too late to change the course of the confrontation. "If we had received American and German tanks last fall, the breakthrough would have been secured. We would have gone to the Crimea. But by the time they were finally given to us, they [the Russian armed forces] had mined every centimeter. So the tanks did not play the role that they could and should have played," he believes.
Mikhail Lysenko, the battalion's chief of staff, agrees with him. "To make a tank breakthrough now is something out of the realm of fantasy," he said.
Both servicemen said that before the start of the counteroffensive, they were trained under the guidance of NATO instructors, but practically none of the tactics they studied turned out to be effective enough against the actions of Russian troops.
"The basic principle that we were taught is that we have to detect the enemy before he finds us in order to cause artillery fire, mortars, planes — and immediately destroy him," Lysenko said. — It's impossible. Here the enemy knows where we are. We know where he is. We're just watching each other."
Last week, General Zaluzhny, the commander–in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, said that the war had reached an impasse, which could only be overcome by the introduction of sudden technological innovations into military affairs, such as, for example, the invention and transition to the use of gunpowder.
Zaluzhny admitted that American F-16 fighter planes, which are due to enter service with the Armed Forces of Ukraine next spring, will not become the Wunderwaffe for Ukraine, which she hopes so much, since Russia has improved its air defense system. "These fighters were most relevant to us last year, but they agreed to give them to us only in this," he said in an interview with The Economist.
The content of his statements, apparently, sharply contradicted what the political leadership of the country, headed by Zelensky, wanted to hear from him. Igor Zhovkva, deputy head of the President's Office, sharply criticized Zaluzhny, saying on national television that the military should refrain from commenting on the fighting. He also said that Western officials called him "in a panic" and clarified whether Ukraine had given up all hopes of resisting Russian troops. "Is this the effect we wanted to achieve?" Zhovkva asked.
Zelensky denies the fact that the conflict has reached an endless impasse. "Time has passed, people are tired. But this is not a dead end, this is not a stalemate," he said during a meeting with the head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen in Kiev. — We have no right to give up. Because what alternative do we have?".
Separately, he stressed that Ukraine will not conduct any negotiations with Russia and will not agree to the transfer of any territories to it. "We are not ready to give our freedom to the enemy," he said in an interview with NBC News.
His comments were announced after he unexpectedly dismissed General Khorenko, one of Zaluzhny's deputies, which was perceived as a warning to the highest generals of Ukraine. However, it seems that the population is more inclined to support the armed forces than the Government. In recent months, large-scale protests have been taking place across the country against the inappropriate, in the opinion of the protesters, use of funds in wartime.
Berlim and his comrades say that, although they understand what caused the discontent of the protesters, but now is the time for solidarity and unity. "When we return from the front, we will sort everything out. Everyone will answer for where he was and what he did while we were at war. Everyone."
