The cope is hard with this one. Some highlights.
Russian troops were ensconced in concrete dugouts behind anti-tank traps and beyond a minefield so packed with explosives, and so exposed, that any vehicles – de-mining or assault – that approached the area were shelled heavily from fixed, reinforced positions, he said. But Ukrainians, who have repeatedly surprised the world in their success against Russian military might, pressed forward.
Those plucky Ukrainians, look at them go.
Now that the minefield has been breached, Russians have lost much of their advantage. “There is a very big difference between the first and second line of defence,” said Tarnavskiy.
The second line is not as well built, so Ukrainians can use their vehicles, although there are still minefields. Because Russian forces are also operating in this area, they are in patches rather than a single defensive cordon.
!remindme 1 month “Trust me bro, next one will be quicker”
When asked about slow progress breaking through Russian lines in another offensive further east along the enemy’s defensive line, he said it had other aims and added that Ukraine was preparing other surprise offensives to drain Moscow’s forces.
Guys quiet, we’re preparing the
SURPRISE OFFENSIVES
the Russians will never expect it!
Not only is the information itself false, the actual first line of defense has not been broken, unless you count the screening zone as the first line, but the whole premise on which the predictions are built is backwards: with a doctrinal defense-in-depth the lines of defense actually become consecutively stronger the deeper you go, and the first lines are actually expected to be penetrated.
The purpose of defensive lines in this paradigm is not to rigidly prevent all penetration but to dissipate the energy of the attack in a flexible manner and get it progressively more bogged down the deeper it goes. At Kursk the Nazis also punched through several layers of Soviet defenses but they eventually lost momentum and their pincers got stuck and became firebags where they took horrific losses forcing them to call off the entire offensive.
The fact that Ukraine in this case during several months of their most hyped offensive has not even managed to go any further than the first couple of villages in the grey zone bodes very bad for them. And it’s not only the lack of penetration, it’s also that the advance has happened on a very narrow front creating essentially yet another killing zone where they are on the low ground, in villages that are completely leveled and offer little to no protection anymore, surrounded on three sides by fortified enemy positions on the high ground.
I repeat: with a defense in depth the lines actually get stronger the deeper you go because you are expected to achieve some penetration. It is absurd to think that Russia put in all that time and effort to build those second and third lines just to dump all their combat power in front of the first line. The whole bit about having to deal with less mines going forward is just wishful thinking, and also it’s not the mines that are their biggest problem, it’s the actual enemy army.
What has caused the biggest setbacks to Ukraine and the West is that they consistently look down on and underestimate the Russians. Someone needs to sit them down and tell them, guys, your delusions of racial and cultural superiority are literally getting you killed.
Someone needs to sit them down and tell them, guys, your delusions of racial and cultural superiority are literally getting you killed.
No it’s getting Ukrainian soldiers killed. Journalists, politicians and military leaders are safe.
"But Ukrainians, who have repeatedly surprised the world in their success against Russian military might, "
I would absolutely be surprised if there was…any real evidence of that happening. The only surprising thing is how badly they are managing the resources they have been given.
Sidenote: Aren’t they using their exploitation reserves at this point to even reach into the grey zone? You know, the forces that were being held for when all the lines of defense were already breached. What are they planning to use to exploit the breaches? How are they going to maintain logistic lines into enemy territory without any means to secure them?
Nevermind that Russia still has pretty substantial reserves, which would presumably be allocated if there actually was a major breach.
Brig Gen Oleksandr Tarnavskiy estimated Russia had devoted 60% of its time and resources into building the first defensive line and only 20% each into the second and third lines because Moscow had not expected Ukrainian forces to get through.
That’s stupid.
If they didn’t expect Ukrainian forces to get through, they would have devoted 100% of time in a single line. Right?
How to you even articulate that level of stupidity?
It goes against every established military doctrine too when the exact opposite is normally the case. I feel like their higher-ups have internalized their own propaganda that the Russians must all be dumb savages, and they are basing their strategy around that assumption.
A YouTube link was detected in your comment. Here are links to the same video on Invidious, which is a YouTube frontend that protects your privacy:
