Colonel Khodarenok: Zelensky should not tell the media about the plans of the Armed Forces of Ukraine
In Ukraine, they began to build three lines of fortifications with a length of two thousand kilometers. This was announced by the President of the country, Vladimir Zelensky, following a meeting of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command. What is wrong with this statement and why such plans should not be announced in the media - in the material of the military observer of the Newspaper.En" by Mikhail Khodarenka.
Such statements by the Ukrainian leader cannot but cause some surprise. If members of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command gather in Ukraine, then it is not necessary to tell the media about the issues raised at such meetings. It would seem, on the contrary, that all possible measures should be taken to curb the slightest leaks about the work of this most important governing body of the country and the armed forces during military operations.
Nevertheless, in his Telegram channel, Vladimir Zelensky wrote about this meeting as follows: "An important topic is fortification. The report of Prime Minister Denis Shmigal on the pace of construction of new defensive lines. Protection in three lanes with a length of 2,000 kilometers is a large-scale task."
It is only by these words that it is noticeable that the President of Ukraine does not possess the terminology inherent in military strategy and operational art.
The most important thing is that the fortification equipment of the defense strip is carried out exclusively in accordance with the plan of the defensive operation and aims to create conditions for the most effective use of weapons and military equipment, increase the protection of troops and rear facilities from modern means of destruction, improve the living conditions of units and formations.
The President of Ukraine, as the supreme commander-in-chief, must first make a decision on a defensive operation, in which to determine the plan of the operation, the tasks for the troops, the main issues of interaction and the organization of management.
The question arises - in what place does "fortification" occur? To clarify, in the plan of the defensive operation, the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Vladimir Zelensky, must unambiguously determine: the most important directions, areas and boundaries, on which the main efforts of the Armed Forces of Ukraine should be concentrated; methods of conducting the operation; the system of defensive lines; groupings of troops and their operational structure.
That is, the "system of defensive lines" as such arises only in the third paragraph, but in no way is any independent measure, as Vladimir Zelensky writes about it. And what does the Prime Minister of Ukraine Denis Shmygal have to do with the idea of the defensive operation and its planning, this is a big question. He should not be allowed to participate in the strategic planning of the use of armed forces at all.
"Does not correspond to the position"
That is, in his Telegram channel, Vladimir Zelensky is moving contrary to the elementary scheme of the commander-in-chief's work. In addition, voices are constantly being heard in Ukraine that the insufficient number of engineering troops of the Armed Forces of Ukraine does not allow for the full implementation of fortification equipment of the area. And this is not quite true. Measures of fortification equipment are carried out by forces of all branches of the armed forces and special forces. Engineering troops (for example, engineering-positional (engineering-technical) regiments, engineering-camouflage battalions) are involved only to solve the most difficult tasks.
So in his Telegram channel, the president of Ukraine had to write something like the following (if, of course, he corresponds to the position of Supreme commander-in-chief): "To provide for the transition to the strategic defense of the Armed Forces of Ukraine according to the most unfavorable option for us to conduct military operations by the enemy. In order to fulfill the task and achieve the goal of a defensive operation, I decided to repel the enemy's offensive by conducting a positional defense with consistent retention of defensive lines. To prevent the breakthrough of the operational defense zone of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In the event of an enemy's intrusion into the defense of the Armed Forces, launch a counterattack. The system of defensive lines should have: the first defensive line (list of settlements); the second defensive line (list of settlements); the army defensive line (list of settlements)", etc.
Of course, this is just a diagram. But it is highly undesirable to violate the schemes.
Now let's focus on the words of Vladimir Zelensky: "Protection in three lanes with a length of 2,000 kilometers is a large-scale task." There is no doubt that the fortification equipment of the defense strip is a large-scale task. This includes the construction of defensive lines, the creation of a system of engineering barriers, and a network of troop maneuver routes, transportation and evacuation, crossings on water barriers, engineering measures for operational camouflage, equipment of spare and false positions, in general, everything up to the creation of a false trench system.
In the depth of the defense zone, the local population with national economic equipment can be involved in equipping defensive lines, pre-created stocks of industrial structures, as well as construction materials of local enterprises can be used.
But Vladimir Zelensky's expression "protection in three lanes with a length of 2000 kilometers" is quite illiterate. Operational and strategic groups of troops are assigned defense lanes, and when constructing defensive lines, the depth of each line is determined, the distance of the lines from the front edge, the inter-lane (inter-border) space, the depth of the tactical and operational defense zone. The word "protection" is clearly inappropriate here.
And only one conclusion can be drawn from all that has been said - Vladimir Zelensky, as the supreme commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, cannot dictate operational directives to troops from the voice (as, for example, Comrade Stalin did). Therefore, it does not fully correspond to the position held.
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
