/ world today news/ Although it is still too early to speak of a complete failure of the Ukrainian offensive, nevertheless, the armed forces of Ukraine lost a significant part of their forces. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu drew attention to this when he spoke on August 15 at the XI Moscow Conference on International Security.
“Preliminary results of hostilities show that Ukraine’s military resources are almost exhausted,” said the head of the military department.
The assessment of the Minister of Defense is also confirmed by the information that comes from the front zone.
In the last few days, footage has appeared on the network showing units of the reserve of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which have not yet participated 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 machines, the VSU received at the end of March – Marders were taken from the reserves of the Bundeswehr and from the warehouses of the Rheinmetall enterprise. In order to bring the equipment into operation, repairs and extensive modernization were required, since the last machine of this model rolled off the assembly line in the mid-1970s.
The Marder BMP is designed for the transportation and fire support of 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.
Some 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 in the protected compartment.
Once again, we note that the mentioned machines were delivered in the spring, the Marders in March, the Stryker armored personnel carrier in April. The counter-offensive has been going on (judging by the official announcements of Kiev) since the beginning of June, and the equipment has been spotted on the contact line only now.
„They are exhausted and have lost their fighting ability”
It can be assumed that the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine decided to throw the reserves into battle. However, there could be several reasons behind this decision. Either Kiev introduces new formations into battle due to high 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 eating up the last resources of the Ukrainian army, in the second, that the offensive, on the contrary, is entering an active phase.
The first option is more likely, according to the military expert Maxim Tumbartsev.
„My opinion is that the offensive started right up “in full force”. That is, not in the “reconnaissance with combat” format, but at full power. The brigades that were thrown into battle in June and July were exhausted and, apparently, lost their fighting ability, and now they are introducing a reserve that was not affected before, ” Tumbartsev explained to IA Regnum.
Vladimir Rogov, head of the Zaporizhzhya public movement “We are together with Russia”, also reported that the enemy seems to be depleting its reserves not only of equipment, but also of manpower in the counteroffensive. On the front in the Zaporozhye region, the armed forces of Ukraine include ” two-thirds of the reserves, a considerable part of which has already been lost to paint“, said Rogov, quoted by RIA Novosti.
“The Germans” come after the “Swedes”
In recent weeks, formations from the 116th, 117th and 118th mechanized brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were sent to the front, Tumbartsev said. These units were joined by formations of the so-called “Offensive Guard” 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 in reserve.
Previously, units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which use Swedish-made equipment – CV90 infantry fighting vehicles, Archer self-propelled artillery installations and Strv122 tanks – were introduced into combat. These formations were seen 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 have already been put into battle.
„In general, reserves are indeed gradually depleted. So after a while there will be no one to bring into battle. This does not mean that the front will fall apart after that, but the offensive will die down, ” Tumbartsev thinks.
However, experts say, so far the armed forces of Ukraine have not exhausted all the possibilities of an offensive – and the “Western allies” are doing everything possible to prevent the “counterattack” from completely sinking.
Bet on the breakthrough
At the end of last week, on August 11, the British Ministry of Defense officially announced that a group of 1,000 marines from the Armed Forces of Ukraine, who underwent a six-month training course, had returned to Ukraine. According to the London Daily Express, it is this unit that must force the Dnieper or be used in the forefront of the Ukrainian attack on Crimea.
The fact that the American Stryker armored personnel carriers appeared in the “advance” zone may mean that the enemy hopes to break through the front line in a narrow section, military expert, tank troops reserve officer Alexander Mikhailovsky told IA Regnum.
„It was initially announced that the United States would transfer about one hundred Stryker armored personnel carriers to Ukraine. About fifty more cars were then delivered as compensation for the losses sustained in the counteroffensive, – draws attention to the expert. – The first batch included ten vehicles in the M1132 Engineer Squad Vehicle modification, designed to overcome minefields. So their appearance in leading positions at the moment is not accidental.
The American armored personnel carriers have been handed over to the landing units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which are operating in the area of the village of Rabotino, Zaporozhye region, where serious fighting is taking place, Mykhailovsky noted. The Ukrainian army has been trying to break through the front in this area for a long time, but it is constantly suffering heavy losses without significant progress.
„The most rosy option for the armed forces of Ukraine looks like this: they break through the front, pulling the available forces on themselves. At that time, a landing force was landed across the Dnieper, making transitions (by the way, the German pontoons for the construction of bridges were handed over to them for this very purpose) and a certain reserve went along our rear directly to the Crimea “, Mihailovsky outlined the proposed scenario of the armed forces of Ukraine.
But, the expert emphasizes, it actually turned out that part of the forces had already been destroyed in the fruitless attempts to advance. “In addition, the Dnieper line was also not left without cover by our military (as the enemy expected), so the prospects for such an operation are, to put it mildly, somewhat unclear,” the source said.
Americans are investing in the next “counteroffensive”
Not being able to immediately break through the Russian defenses in the Zaporozhian direction, the command of the Ukrainian army switched to the tactics of positional battles, in which formations trained on the training grounds of NATO countries are gradually worn out, experts say.
Washington’s backers of Kiev appear to be resigned to the fact that at least the current large-scale offensive by Ukraine’s armed forces has failed. With the onset of autumn, it will become increasingly difficult for Ukrainian troops to conduct offensive operations, admitted the representative of the National Security Council of the White House, John Kirby.
Joe Biden’s administration has admitted that an offensive by Ukraine’s armed forces could be delayed until 2024. Therefore, it makes sense that the White House is considering funding the Ukrainian military next year, as evidenced by a recent article in the Financial Times.
President Biden, we recall, formally asked Congress to allocate an additional $13 billion in emergency military aid to Kiev and another $8.5 billion in economic and security assistance to Kiev. It is true that it is not certain that Congress will readily agree.
Experts agree that Ukraine’s armed forces do not have much time to try to mount an offensive in 2023: 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 Kiev, persuading it to conclude a truce. However, the decision on a truce will not be made in Kiev, but in Washington.
Translation: ES
Subscribe to our YouTube channel:
and for the channel in Telegram:
Share on your profiles, with friends, in groups and on pages. In this way, we will overcome the limitations, and people will be able to reach the alternative point of view on the events!?
#Ukrainian #Armed #Forces #throw #German #equipment #offensive
