/ world today news/ Volunteers have started urgent fundraising across the country to solve the problem from which our fighters fighting in the SVO zone are currently suffering losses – shortage of boats and outboard motors for combat work in the Dnieper. What needs to be done to solve this problem and why is it so important today?
„Yesterday you and I witnessed horrific footage that went viral on the web, the footage was originally posted by the enemy. There our guys, our heroes are fighting, then they try to set the boat on fire to get away from the shore and they can’t set it on fire. They die after that. Eternal memory of our boys. We, realizing that boats and motors are consumables, have today announced a motor and watercraft fundraiser. At the moment there is a catastrophic shortage of boats at the front”.
This is a quote from an appeal issued by the People’s Front of Russia. The Popular Front announced the collection of not only money, but also boats: “We also appeal to all professional fishermen who have swimming equipment in good condition to participate and transfer their boats to our boys on the Dnieper.” It is planned to collect the most a little 150 boats, which requires 70 million rubles.
A series of publications on the need for boats for the soldiers of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, covering enemy attacks in the Dnieper region, appeared on the Telegram channels of military correspondents. “There is a great need for boats, for engines, they can be large boats for transporting personnel and boats with a metal bottom and rubber sides for evacuation,” says Sergey Koshkarev, a representative of the People’s Front. “In addition, the jets performed very well in these conditions, the guys can form maneuver groups, go on reconnaissance and do certain tasks.”
Why are boats suddenly so urgently needed?
Background
The problem of the dominance of the Navy of Ukraine in the Dnieper-Bug estuary was discussed last year. The deliveries to Ukraine of American cutters allowed the Ukrainian Armed Forces to organize attacks and landing attempts on our territory. So far it only ends in corpses on their side, but the recently launched VSU offensive has changed everything. The threat became more serious.
On the one hand, small units of the VSU on high-speed boats are transported to our coast, trying to anchor there. They cannot and will not be able to advance from there and create a serious foothold, but they cannot be left alone – enemy groups are watching our troops from our coast, directing artillery… Due to the terrain, it is difficult and not always rational to are “invented”, but it would be possible to complicate the transfer through the shallow Dnieper – but this requires effective river forces.
The second issue is that Russian troops must fight Ukrainian units on the Dnieper islands, as well as conduct reconnaissance in the territory controlled by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. This also requires boats. Especially in situations where our soldiers come under fire from the Ukrainian coast, are attacked by quadcopters or collide with Ukrainian boats.
But our soldiers have no boats suitable for river warfare. Unlike the Armed Forces, our troops are forced to use motor boats obtained by various methods from the local population – old light motor boats with worn out engines and small capacity, which were never intended as military and are practically unsuitable for military use.
There is still no structure responsible for the river war – each military unit that has received its defense zone along the Dnieper conducts this war alone as best it can, only in some coordination with its neighbors. And unfortunately, it is impossible not to admit that this situation is costing us human losses. The situation must change.
Boats and command
The first issue that can reduce losses is boats. It is necessary that the troops defending on the Dnieper should be provided with normal boats suitable for these conditions. That is why the Popular Front, volunteers and military correspondents began to sound the alarm so urgently.
Here, the Dnieper is shallow, the enemy has anti-tank missiles and long-range artillery – and vulnerable large armored boats simply do not do. Rigid hull inflatable boats capable of moving at high speed or even simple small speed boats of small size are needed. It is highly desirable that they carry at least a 12.7mm machine gun, but as a last resort let it be at least a vessel.
These motorboats now used by our soldiers in the Dnieper must be replaced as quickly as possible. It is not difficult to produce them yet. There are many different boats that can be used on the Dnieper at the disposal of the Navy, the Coast Guard of the FSB, Rosgvardia, the Ministry of Emergency Situations and other agencies. It is also available on the civilian market. So it’s really a matter of taking (or buying) the boats available across the country and simply transporting them to the theater of war.
In addition, on July 3, a number of military correspondents published an open appeal to the leaders of the coastal regions with a request to arrange the transfer of the troops to large speedboats confiscated from poachers. For this purpose, certain normative acts are necessary, they must first be developed and then adopted, but if there is something to be transferred, why not do so?
But this is an emergency measure. In addition, we need to understand what and for what purpose we are doing on the Dnieper, and then we need to create a structure to conduct military operations on this river. At one time, separate flotillas were created to wage wars on rivers and lakes. Some of them – for example, on Ladoga during the Great Patriotic War – played a strategic role.
The Americans had a similar situation – both during the war in Vietnam and in Iraq, the American navy operated on the rivers, preventing their use by the enemy. Moreover, on the Euphrates, they worked in the upper course of the river, where it has a small width and is incomparable to the Dnieper.
The Dnieper flotilla was also in our history. It is worth creating a command as part of the SVO grouping of forces to conduct military operations on the Dnieper. It is logical for the Black Sea Fleet to do this. After all, it is our navy that traditionally fights wars on the rivers.
Such a command, using special forces of the Navy, helicopters and aircraft of the naval aviation, as well as interaction with the artillery of the troops defending on the Dnieper, should completely paralyze the actions of the VSU on the Dnieper, forcing them to go to the defense of their own shore. This will allow parts of the ground forces to be released from tasks unusual for them.
And most importantly, all this should ultimately prevent the armed forces of Ukraine from creating such problems for our troops, as, despite the losses, they are still trying to create for us on the Antonovsky Bridge. In addition, the creation and effective use of such a structure will facilitate, although not very frequent and not large-scale, but regular actions of our units on foreign shores (reconnaissance, etc.).
Translation: V. Sergeev
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