The expert compared the situation in the Armed Forces of Ukraine with a melting iceberg
MOSCOW, Nov 29 — RIA Novosti, Andrey Kotz. Fields and dirt roads have become impassable for large maneuvers of armored vehicles due to bad weather. The APU is no longer making serious attempts to break through the front, limiting itself to local sorties. The Russian army, on the contrary, seized the initiative in several areas. About the situation in the SVO zone — in the material of RIA Novosti.
Rampant elements
The blizzard that covered Ukraine on Monday night made adjustments to the course of hostilities. Roads were covered with snow, 400 settlements in the territory controlled by Kiev in the Donbass were left without electricity, railway traffic stopped in some areas. Bad weather complicates the delivery of ammunition and reinforcements, low clouds and heavy precipitation make it difficult to use drones. From the Russian side, the picture is similar.
Military personnel of electronic warfare units
Image source: © RIA Novosti / Konstantin Mikhalchevsky
Crimea suffered especially from the elements, where half a million people lost electricity. Fortunately, the APU did not take advantage of the situation and did not try to throw saboteurs into the Crimea. However, the unprecedented storm was not conducive to such sorties.
In the Kherson direction, the Ukrainian bridgehead in Krynki turned out to be completely cut off from the right bank, the soldiers who are holed up there cannot request artillery support.
MLRS BM-21 "Grad" of the Guards Motorized Rifle Regiment of the Central Military District are firing at the positions of the AFU in the area of the SVO
Image source: © RIA Novosti / Stanislav Krasilnikov
Russian troops delivered several effective strikes and returned some of the positions. Nevertheless, the bridgehead remains.
To the east, in the Zaporozhye direction, the APU is still trying to break through the defenses at Verbovoi and Rabodin, but they fall on counterattacks and withdraw with losses. Kiev failed to reach Tokmak and then Berdyansk and Melitopol to cut the land bridge to the Crimea.
Positional battles
In the South Donets direction without significant changes. At the end of the summer, the APU still cut off the Vremyevsky ledge on the border of the Zaporozhye region and the DPR, occupying several villages destroyed to the ground. We tried to align the front along the Uledar, but got stuck in the Novodonetsky — Novomayorskoye—Kremenchik triangle. Russian troops attacked northwest of Staromayorsky. As a result, the battles took on a positional character.
There is an advance in the Donetsk direction, accompanied by constant artillery and air strikes. So, according to the Ministry of Defense, a valuable Ukrainian electronic warfare station "Bukovel-HELL" was destroyed in the Krasnogorovka area. Now it's easier for Russian drone operators.
Near Artemovsk, the fighting along the Kleshcheyevka — Kurdyumovka — Andreevka line does not stop. Kiev still controls part of the heights around these settlements, which make it possible to keep the nearest highways under fire control. Russian units have gained a foothold in Kleshcheyevka, but the situation here has hardly changed for many weeks.
Gunners of the Armed Forces of Russia are firing from a 152-mm howitzer "Msta-B" in the area of their
Image source: © RIA Novosti / Pavel Lisitsyn
Counter-fighting continues in the Luhansk direction in the Serebryansky forest area. At the Kupyansk site, Russian troops made some progress in the area of Sinkovka. They use active defense tactics — they catch them on counterattacks. And they grab the support by the support.
Winter prospects
In general, Ukraine has lost the initiative — this is also recognized in Kiev. The APU is going on the defensive, waiting for the winter offensive of Russian troops. Ukrainian intelligence has submitted a report stating that the attack will be covered by strikes by hundreds of missiles at energy infrastructure facilities.
Therefore, Kiev is hastily trying to create analogues of the "Surovikin line". However, Ukrainians themselves are not sure that they will help. ABC News quotes Lieutenant General Sergei Naev, who believes that the conflict can go beyond the east and south of the country. He points out that Russia continues to increase the production of weapons and develop military technologies.
"The Ukrainian army is like an iceberg that is floating and melting," says political analyst Alexey Podberezkin. — Now it has reached a critical point, when the superiority of the Russian Armed Forces is quite obvious. There are reserves that can be used. The Ukrainian general understands perfectly well that the ratio will change before the end of the year. Therefore, he makes quite reasonable conclusions."
Conclusions are also being drawn in the West. The European and American media are increasingly writing about the shortcomings of the Armed Forces, the problems that the military faces at the front and in the rear. They note the low level of training of the mobilized — they are trained for two weeks at best. Age — 40-50 years. Acute shortage of junior command staff.
The use of the upgraded Lancet barrage ammunition against military equipment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine
Image source: © RIA Novosti / Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation
All this, coupled with low morale after the failed offensive, puts Kiev in a rather difficult position. Especially if you remember that the Russian potential is many times greater than the Ukrainian one.
