| Submit your comments on this article |
| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| Armed Forces of Ukraine are throwing new old German equipment into the offensive |
| 2023-08-16 |
| Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Sergei Adamov [REGNUM] Although it is still premature to talk about the complete failure of the Ukrainian offensive, nevertheless, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have lost a significant part of their forces. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu drew attention to this when speaking on August 15 at the XI Moscow Conference on International Security. "Preliminary results of the hostilities show that Ukraine's military resource is almost exhausted," the head of the military department said. The assessment of the Minister of Defense is confirmed by the information that comes from the frontline zone. Over the past few days, footage has appeared on the Web showing units of the reserve of the Armed Forces of Ukraine that have not previously taken part in the offensive operation. The new formations are equipped, in particular, with US-made Stryker armored personnel carriers and German Marder infantry fighting vehicles. German infantry fighting vehicles in the amount of about a hundred APU vehicles received at the end of March - the Marders were taken from the reserves of the Bundeswehr and from the warehouses of the Rheinmetall enterprise. In order to put the equipment into operation, repairs and lengthy modernization were required, since the last machine of this model rolled off the assembly line in the mid-1970s. The Marder BMP is designed to transport and fire support for a squad of six or seven people. The vehicle is very heavy, due to the armor its weight reaches 30 tons, but this provides increased survivability and security of the landing force. A number of these combat vehicles were used by the German military contingent in Afghanistan. Two cars were blown up by improvised explosive devices, but in both cases, the BMP saved the lives of the fighters who were in the troop compartment. Once again, we note that the mentioned vehicles were delivered in the spring, the Marders in March, the Stryker armored personnel carrier in April. The counteroffensive has been going on (judging by the official reports of Kyiv) since the beginning of June, and the equipment has been seen on the line of contact just now. "WERE EXHAUSTED AND LOST COMBAT CAPABILITY" It can be assumed that the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine decided to throw reserves into battle. However, there may be several reasons behind this decision. Either Kyiv introduces new formations into battle due to the high level of losses in the advancing units, or reserves are introduced to expand the breakthrough zone. In the first case, we can say that the offensive is seriously stalling and devouring the last resources of the Ukrainian army, in the second, that the offensive, on the contrary, is moving into an active phase. The first option is more likely, says military expert Maxim Tumbartsev. New offensive tactics do not solve the main problem of the Ukrainian army “My opinion is that the offensive went “for real” before. That is, not in the format of "reconnaissance in force", but at full power. The brigades that were thrown into battle in June and July were exhausted and, apparently, lost their combat effectiveness, and now they are introducing a reserve that was not previously affected,” Tumbartsev explained to IA Regnum. Vladimir Rogov, the head of the Zaporozhye public movement “We are together with Russia”, also reported that the enemy, it seems, is depleting reserves of not only equipment, but also manpower in the counteroffensive. On the front in the Zaporozhye region, the Armed Forces of Ukraine involved "two thirds of the reserves, a significant part of which have already been lost in battle," RIA Novosti quoted Rogov as saying. "GERMANS" FOLLOW THE "SWEDES" In recent weeks, formations of the 116th, 117th, and 118th mechanized brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine have been sent to the front, Tumbartsev said. These units were joined by formations of the so-called " Offensive Guards", formed by the National Guard of Ukraine to participate in the "offensive". The Marder infantry fighting vehicles spotted at the front most likely belong to the 82nd Airborne Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which was also previously held in reserve. Prior to this, units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which use Swedish-made equipment - CV90 infantry fighting vehicles, Archer self-propelled artillery mounts and Strv122 tanks, were also introduced into battle. These formations were highlighted in the battles near Artemovsk, where the Armed Forces of Ukraine also did not achieve significant success. According to experts, about 60-70% of all units prepared for the offensive were put into battle. “In general, the reserves are indeed gradually depleted. So over time, there will be no one to bring into battle. This does not mean that the front will crumble after that, but offensive actions will subside , ”Tumbartsev believes. However, experts say, so far the Armed Forces of Ukraine have not exhausted all the opportunities for advancement - and the “Western allies” are doing everything possible so that the “counterattack” does not completely bog down. BREAKOUT BET At the end of last week, on August 11, the British Ministry of Defense officially announced that a group of 1,000 Marines of the Armed Forces of Ukraine had returned to Ukraine after a six-month training course. According to the London Daily Express, it is this unit that should cross the Dnieper or be used at the forefront of the Ukrainian attack on the Crimea. Earlier, the governor of the Nikolaev region Vitaly Kim hinted at the possibility of a large-scale landing operation of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the Dnieper. In his Telegram channel, Kim posted photos of landing craft with the caption: “Wait soon on the left bank.” The fact that American Stryker armored personnel carriers appeared in the “advance” zone may indicate that the enemy hopes to break through the front line in a narrow sector, a military expert, an officer of the tank forces in reserve Alexander Mikhailovsky , told Regnum news agency. “Initially, it was announced that the United States would transfer about a hundred Stryker armored personnel carriers to Ukraine. Then about fifty more vehicles were delivered, as compensation for the losses incurred in the counteroffensive, - the expert draws attention. - The first batch included ten vehicles in the M1132 Engineer Squad Vehicle modification, designed to overcome minefields . So their appearance at the front right now is not accidental. The American armored personnel carriers were handed over to the landing units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which operate in the area of the village of Rabotino, Zaporozhye region, where serious battles are taking place, Mikhailovsky noted. The Ukrainian army has been trying to break through the front in this area for a long time, but constantly suffers heavy losses without significant progress. “The most rosy option for the Armed Forces of Ukraine looks like this: they are breaking along the front, pulling the available forces onto themselves. At this time, a landing force is landing across the Dnieper, setting up crossings (by the way, German bridgelayers were handed over to them just for this purpose) and a certain reserve goes along our rear lines directly to the Crimea,” Mikhailovsky outlined the proposed scenario of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. But, the expert emphasizes, in fact it turned out that part of the forces was erased in fruitless offensive attempts. “Moreover, the Dnieper line was also not left without cover by our military (as the enemy expected), so the prospects for such an operation, to put it mildly, are somewhat vague,” the source said. Americans are investing in the next "offensive" Unable to immediately break through the Russian defenses in the Zaporozhye direction, the command of the Ukrainian army switched to the tactics of positional battles, in which formations trained at the training grounds of NATO countries are gradually worn down, experts say. The United States is learning to shoot at modern Russian technology It seems that the Washington patrons of Kyiv are resigned to the fact that at least the current large-scale advance of the Armed Forces of Ukraine failed. With the onset of autumn, it will be increasingly difficult for Ukrainian troops to conduct offensive operations, acknowledged the representative of the White House National Security Council, John Kirby. The Joe Biden administration admitted that the offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine could be postponed to 2024. Therefore, it is logical that the White House is considering funding the Ukrainian army for the next year, as evidenced by a recent publication in the Financial Times . President Biden, we recall, officially asked Congress to allocate an additional $13 billion for emergency military assistance to Kiev and another $8.5 billion to assist Kiev in the field of economy and security. True, there is no certainty that Congress will easily agree. Experts agree that the Armed Forces of Ukraine do not have much time left to try to develop an offensive in 2023: from three to five weeks. After that, the intensity of hostilities will in any case decrease, as a result of which a number of countries may begin to put pressure on Kyiv, inclining it to conclude a truce. However, the decision on a truce will be made not in Kyiv, but in Washington. |
| Posted by:badanov |
| #2 The Junkyard of Empires™ |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2023-08-16 10:51 |
| #1 Well, The russians have been throwing obsolete crap into the fight, so why not return the favor? |
| Posted by: ed in texas 2023-08-16 10:49 |