Pokrovskaya tragedy

Julia Latynina reflects on where the APU has disappeared in the Donetsk region, and what is the plan of Zelensky

If one of the goals of the Kursk operation of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was to force Putin to transfer the troops from Donbass near Kursk, then it failed. The transfer of troops from the Pokrovsky direction did not happen.

Exactly the opposite. The attacks in the Pokrovsky direction were intensified, and the advance of the Russian troops accelerated. Often they advance three km per day (you need to understand that these three kilometers are not necessarily ahead, more often they expand the bridgehead). The fate of Novogrodovka was indicative, where there were significant fortifications that remained since the “third line” of Poroshenko. Novogrodovka was simply abandoned. At first, new units, recruited from Ukrainian “ Busifikans ”, and then the National Guard, left her without a fight.

In fact, we are talking about the loss of control over troops. With a planned retreat, the troops retreat to the prepared positions. And here there is no prepared positions. The troops simply retreat. They do not run, but retreat from under the planned roller rink.

One of the reasons for the loss of control - in the Pokrovsky direction, Ukraine still does not have well -prepared fortifications. This is a circumstance that is difficult to explain.

In the modern war, the strengthening is an alpha and omega defense. Three lines of fortifications built by Poroshenko played a huge role in stopping Putin. He understood that his offensive would fall into the fortification lines and will become tie.

They began to be built in January 2015, right during Debaltseve, and the first line was built in two weeks. For the third, capital, it took a year now. These fortifications served Ukraine by faith and truth, and were the main three lines of fortifications that worked in this war.

But something incomprehensible happens in this war.

On the eve of the fall of Avdeevka, President Zelensky categorically did not agree with the then commander -in -Chief of Salzhny, who demanded the construction of fortifications. The president insisted on the offensive. They fired the slave, Avdeevka fell, and it turned out that there were no serious fortifications for her. The defense of Avdeevka is “amazingly weak,” wrote Nyt, analyzing satellite pictures . At the same time, the money for defense was allocated sufficient.

In the Kharkov region, the fortifications were also not built. The scandal was such that after the start of the offensive, the Verkhovna Rada created a temporary commission for the use of funds for the construction of fortifications. The representative of this commission, Mikhail Bondar, said that the SBU opened 30 criminal proceedings on the theft on their construction of 20 billion hryvnias. This is a little less than half of the allocated money.

It should be borne in mind that many APU units built fortifications at their own expense. For example, in the Kharkov direction, the 92nd brigade built them according to all the rules, for its kosht, and kept it. The 115th brigade was waiting for her to be built for the state-owned-and retreated.

And now it turns out that normal fortifications are also not built near Pokrovsk. The main thing is that the Russian troops are still holding back is the same “third line” of the defense of Poroshenko, who was crumbling and abandoned, which was hastily put in order in places where it was not broken out (as in Oceretino). But the former head of the Donetsk regional military administration, in response to the question of where he was so rich, answers that he sold raspberries for 300 thousand dollars .

The difference between the concrete strengthening by all the rules and a hole in the ground dug up a sapper spatula is the difference in the life and death of a soldier. What are the "meat assault"! It turns out "meat defense."

What happens near Pokrovsky? At first, a powerful blow collapses to Ukrainian positions: phases, artillery, mortars, a controlled Krasnopol shell on coordinates illuminated by a drone. Then a small group of Russian troops is advanced, in fact - for stripping.

Artillery, which can withstand them, is not enough: a significant part of Ukrainian artillery was knocked out by “lancets” during many months of wire with US military supplies. There were mines like Ozm (fragmentation barriers), which planted fields directly from the artillery trunks, stopping the Russian offensive in the Kharkov direction, but there were also few of them.

Drones remain - but their effectiveness has sharply decreased. Russian soldiers often carry a radio electronic warfare in the satchel, there are also opposition guns.

Ukraine began this war with the fired and passed by the Donbass with professional troops, Putin - with non -shared contractors. In Bakhmut, Putin exchanged prisoners for these professional troops; Then they were knocked out by bands. Now the Russian military in the Pokrovsky direction is often surviving, shaved, well -coordinated units, which pay serious money for Russia as a salary and further pay off for each shot down drone or broken armored vehicles. They are opposed by poorly trained "bosifikans" in hastily dug fortifications.

Together with the classical concentration of forces on the main blow and with the lack of serious fortifications, this gives a slow but steady advance of Russian troops. Pokrovsk is a large railway junction that is important for supplying the entire Donbass. Behind him, the area of ​​continuous agglomeration, when one village, in fact, goes into another, ends, and the operational scope begins.

After the Kharkov breakthrough, President Zelensky said that in this breakthrough the whole world was “to blame ” and demanded that Russian advance be stopped, the right to beat Russian logistics in Russian territory. He received this right.

Now, when the Armed Forces of Ukraine retreating in the Pokrovsky direction, we see the same. The issue of unhealthy fortifications is not discussed, but Zelensky requires the right to apply attacks on Russian airfields.

Further depends on the reaction of the United States. She can be double. “You did not build fortifications, stole money, threw the best troops near Kursk, and not near Pokrovsk, and now you use your own failures and your own corruption as a lever in order to involve the United States in the Third World War, on the question of who belongs to Yar watches.”

Another option: “Putin cannot be given to win, Ukraine is lost. Since Putin again has a strategic advantage, we will provide the Armed Forces of Ukraine as a strategic advantage to reduce.

One army will wash the other until Putin understands that for each of his moves to Ukraine will allow a new move. ”

Zelensky’s strategy is to involve the West deeper into war. Hence the trip to Kursk instead of strengthening Pokrovsk (although from a military point of view, Kursk was justified, like the German operation of Sonnenwende).

Non -arranged fortifications are not just inefficiency and corruption. This is free or involuntarily - part of the strategy.

In this war, every time Ukraine showed impressive successes - for example, after the Kharkov counterattack of 2022 or the withdrawal of Russian troops from Kherson, the US support weakened and the supply of weapons ceased. And vice versa, after Ukraine sagged, support increased. It turns out that in the logic of a military welfare, in order to get a lot, you need to sink. The worse for Ukraine, the more the West is harnessed.

The editors may not share the opinions of the author.