Zelensky: the Ukrainian Armed Forces counteroffensive did not achieve the results they wanted to achieve
President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky announced Kiev's plans to build defensive structures from Donbass to the western part of the country. He also said that Ukraine is entering a new phase of armed conflict with Russia. What do these statements mean and whether it is possible to say that Kiev's counteroffensive has ended and Ukraine has gone on the defensive, the military observer of the Newspaper understood.En" Mikhail Khodarenok.
The President of Ukraine announced that "he held a meeting where they discussed the construction of fortifications on the main defensive lines. These are the Avdiivka, Maryinsk, Kupyansk-Limansk directions, as well as the border regions bordering Russia and Belarus." Zelensky said last week that there are enough mines and concrete in the country to implement this plan.
"We have a new phase of the war, and this is a fact," Vladimir Zelensky said in an interview with the Associated Press on Thursday in Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine after traveling through the region to raise the morale of the Armed Forces personnel and the population of the region. "Winter as a whole is a new phase of the war," he added.
When asked if he was satisfied with the results of the counteroffensive, Vladimir Zelensky answered it is difficult.
"Look, we're not backing down, I'm satisfied. We are fighting the second (best) army in the world, I am satisfied," he said, referring to the Russian military. But he added: "We're losing people, I'm not happy. We didn't get all the weapons we wanted, I can't be satisfied, but I also can't complain too much."
The Ukrainian president also stated his fears that the war between Israel and Hamas threatens to overshadow the conflict in Ukraine, as competing political programs and limited resources jeopardize the flow of Western military aid to Kiev.
The President of Ukraine also gave the Associated Press a frank assessment of the counteroffensive last summer.
According to him, the limitations in the size of his armed forces did not allow for rapid progress.
"We don't have enough strength to achieve the desired results faster. But this does not mean that we should surrender, that we should capitulate," Zelensky said. "We are confident in our actions. We are fighting for what belongs to us."
What do Zelensky's words mean?
If we translate the words of Vladimir Zelensky into military language, it means that the Armed Forces of Ukraine are completing offensive operations and military operations and moving on to strategic defense. That is, at this stage, this means Ukraine's abandonment of plans to enter the 1991 borders in the east of the country in the foreseeable future and seize Crimea. And this is, at least, a milestone event.
Now the goals of the Supreme High Command of Ukraine are to hold important areas and defensive lines in operational and strategic depth, restore the situation in the most important areas and create conditions for offensive (counteroffensive) operations. The latter can begin only in the spring of 2024 - and then only with an increase in Western supplies of weapons, military and special equipment by at least an order of magnitude.
It can be assumed that the announced decisions of the President of Ukraine have already been issued in the form of an operational directive of the Supreme High Command with his signature. On the basis of this document, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, General Valery Zaluzhny, should develop defensive operations of troops (forces) in the most important areas and submit to Vladimir Zelensky for approval the plan for the winter campaign of 2024.
"The Ukrainian army is very late"
At the same time, the Armed Forces of Ukraine must immediately organize the preparation of defensive lines and barriers (as mentioned by President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky).Then the groups of the Armed Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine should be rebuilt in accordance with the planned defensive operations and combat operations, restore the second echelon and reserves, consolidate their defenses in the directions of attacks by Russian troops, echelon the rear, replenish stocks of material resources. At the same time, organize the regrouping of air defense forces and means.
And the fortification equipment of the APU defense lines should have been started not with the beginning of the calendar winter, but much earlier. Now the Ukrainian army will have to equip defensive lines, cut-off positions, artillery positional areas, second-echelon formations and reserves, and much more in the shortest possible time. The problem of creating a system of engineering barriers arises in full growth - nodes of barriers, minefields, blockages, flood sites combined into several boundaries.
And tearing off trenches and communication passages, and in general, dealing with fortification equipment of defense strips in winter conditions is not the easiest thing, although the ground does not freeze so deeply in Ukraine.
Based on the decisions of Vladimir Zelensky, Ukrainian units and formations, presumably, have already begun to fortify the area, and they certainly widely use mechanization tools, explosive charges, industrial structures and local materials (although Zelensky himself put it more than briefly - "there are enough mines and concrete in the country").
For these purposes, the forces and means of the troops of the first and second echelons, engineering positional and engineering units, as well as the local population with national economic equipment are involved in the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
At the same time, the Ukrainian army is very late with the fortification equipment of the defense lines, which will take at least a month at the fullest tension of the forces and capabilities of the troops (and the population involved in these works).
Let's return to the words of Vladimir Zelensky - "I held a meeting where we discussed the construction of fortifications on the main defensive lines." From the point of view of military terminology, it is an absolutely fantastic expression (like soft-boiled boots), which shows that the president of Ukraine is still very far from the level of the Supreme Commander of the USSR Armed Forces, Comrade Stalin, who dictated the operational directives of the Supreme Military Committee, pacing his office.
In this case, Zelensky's words should have been stated as follows (after all, someone in his entourage could have suggested this to the president): "I held a meeting at which I identified the most important areas, areas and boundaries on which the main efforts of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the winter campaign should be focused. He gave instructions to proceed with the fortification equipment of the defense lines."
In general, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine needs to work out at least a little (as the classic said - "learn military business in a real way").
The opinion of the author may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.
Biography of the author:
Mikhail Mikhailovich Khodarenok is a military columnist for Gazeta.Ru", retired colonel.
He graduated from the Minsk Higher Engineering Anti-Aircraft Missile School (1976), the Military Air Defense Command Academy (1986).
Commander of the S-75 anti-aircraft missile division (1980-1983).
Deputy commander of the anti-aircraft missile regiment (1986-1988).
Senior Officer of the General Staff of the Air Defense Forces (1988-1992).
Officer of the Main Operational Directorate of the General Staff (1992-2000).
Graduated from the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces (1998).
Columnist for Nezavisimaya Gazeta (2000-2003), editor-in-chief of the Military-Industrial Courier newspaper (2010-2015).
Mikhail Khodarenok
