We often write that it is impossible to verify the reliability of information in war conditions. Example-the fate of the Russian 35th Army

She was "buried" because of the post in Livejournal (already remote)

The defeat of the 35th Russian combined arms army is one of the most resonant news of the last days from the Donbass Front. The fact that most of the fighters of the association died in clashes with the Armed Forces of Ukraine near Izum, even the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andrei Ermak reported. Referring to him, Medusa, as usual, warned: “During the war, it is impossible to quickly check the information that even official representatives of the conflicting parties spread.” Later we checked this information and found out that the primary source was the post in the telegram of the Moscow Blogger, now an employee in the "People's Police of the LPR". Now the post has been deleted, and nothing directly about the "death" of the army was said in it. We figured out how it happened that this message became almost a global sensation.

In this text, the editorial office is trying to evaluate the combat situation in Ukraine on the basis of available data. Medusa consistently opposes the war and requires the speedy withdrawal of Russian troops.

Where did the news come from about the "death" of the 35th Army?

The general public about the “destruction of the 35th Army” became known on June 4 from the Ukrainian media. Those, in turn, referred to the “report” of the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) . Information confirmed in his telegram channel the head of the office of the President of Ukraine Andrei Ermak. He did not name the source of the data, but his message appeared on June 4 - a few hours after ISW employees wrote about the same on Twitter.

True, ISW did not compose any “report”, but only literally quoted the Moscow blogger Andrei Morozov (“Fighting Cat Murz” in Livejournal). Since 2014, Morozov has been served in the “LPR People’s Police”, where he serves drones and communication systems.

The Blogger unit is now about 100 kilometers southeast of Izuma (in the Toshkovka area of ​​the Severodonets district of the Luhansk region). But Morozov did not claim to see the “death” of the 35th Army personally. He presented a colorful description of her plight from the words of an anonymous "participant in the battles." This participant, according to Morozov, said that:

• “From the 35th Army, fighting in the forests near Izum, they asked to transfer that the command [the army] coped with the task of destroying its own troops.” In two individual motorized rifle brigades-38th and 64th-“less than 100 people of really combat-ready infantry” in each in each.
• Losses in the brigades are caused by the fact that they had practically no engineering equipment for digging (including shovels). And the shells of Ukrainian artillery, whose fuses worked in the branches of the trees, were striking in fragments of not covered manpower and equipment.
• The brigades had problems with the connection; They were not provided with full -time secure radio communications. Often I had to do the help of messengers.
• Mercenaries from Wagner PMCs, who, as follows from Morozov’s message, were supposed to support two brigades of the 35th Army, refused to fight under the raisins, because "they do not pay so much money."
• Anonymous witnesses from the 35th Army also turned to Morozov because of the next supply problems: they delivered a truck of toilet paper, which in the process of transporting the wet in the rain.

Other bloggers and military correspondents supporting the war in Ukraine answered Morozov that he was “not aware of” events. One of the military commissars, which, according to him, is located at the Izyumsky bridgehead (though not in the ranks of the 35th Army, but with the "neighbors"), said that the 35th Army "was very surprised to hear that it was destroyed and continued to clean the forests."

After that, the military commissars and frosts continued the dispute, moving on to personalities. From the dispute we can conclude that the parties belong to different groups of supporters of war:

• Morozov is solidarized with Igor Girkin (Strelkov), who from the first days of the Russian invasion writes that the war has been lost, since the leadership of the army and the country was incompetent. Girkin in discussions about the frontal failures of Russians is often quoted by Western experts. Girkin also participated in the discussion of the plot of the 35th Army.
• Its opponents with reservations support the country's leadership (recognizing that the army has “shortcomings” that needs to be corrected).

What is the 35th Army?

In peacetime, the task of the 35th Army was to cover the Russian-Chinese border in the Amur Region and the Khabarovsk Territory. This is one of the weakest formations in the Russian armed forces.

It includes the 69th cover brigade (previously-machine-gun artillery division). But the motorized rifle component of the army is only two separate brigades. In total, the state is six motorized rifle and two tank battalions, or less than 10 thousand people. This regular number is one of the lowest in the Russian armed forces.

At the same time, the army, like other operational associations, has parts of strengthening-the artillery and missile brigades, the management team, etc. However, in Morozov’s post, it was about motorized rifle parts (and specifically-the 38th and 64th brigades).

Earlier, both of these brigades participated in the invasion of Kiev (from the territory of Belarus, where in winter they were transferred to "exercises"). The Ukrainian authorities consider the military personnel of the 64th brigade responsible for the killings of the civilian population in the city of Buch.

At the end of March, the brigades of the 35th Army were withdrawn from Ukraine (along with the entire group trying to surround Kyiv). But already at the end of April they returned to the war-to the Izyumsky bridgehead, where they probably changed the formations of the 1st Panzer Army.

The exact combat path of the brigades on the bridgehead is unknown. Military experts believe that military personnel acted in the area of ​​Bolshoi Kamyshevakhi and the village of factories; They are probably supported by the artillery brigade of the 35th Army.

In the last month, the front line on this site did not change: there were heavy battles before the arrival of brigades of the 35th Army in April (the Russian army tried to expand the bridgehead). Today, the plot can be called secondary: the main events unfold on another flank of the bridgehead-in the area of ​​Svyatogorsk and the Mother of God, where the 30th motorized rifle brigade of the 2nd combined arms guards army comes.

And yet could the army defeat?

We know little about the real losses of the troops participating in the war. The only accessible tool for studying the loss of individual formations is to break up by regions published in the social networks of necrologists to the military who died in Ukraine (it was made and updated by the mediazones ).

It can be assumed that in the regions where the army are based, local residents make up a significant part of the contingent employee. This means that in the case of abnormally high losses in these armies in regional groups in social networks, the “surge” of necrologues will be visible. But in the Amur Region, where the 38th brigade (city of Belogorsk) and the army units of strengthening are based, as well as in the Khabarovsk Territory, where the permanent deployment of the 64th brigade is located, the number of necrologues per capita is still lower than in neighboring regions. The highest indicator of this ratio in Russia is in Buryatia, where the 36th combined arms army is based, parts of which are also seen in the area of ​​Izum. In second place is the Transbaikal Territory (the even weaker 29th combined arms army, also covering the Chinese border) is based there).

True, it must be remembered that a significant part of the necrologues appears on social networks with a large delay, so it is not yet possible that there have been no abnormal losses in the 35th Army recently.

Department "Parsing"