/ world today news/ The Ukrainian command hopes to change the situation in the southern section of the front. On October 19, the Ukrainians managed to land north of the main landing area and occupy the village of Krinki. As of the morning of October 23, the enemy continues to control the center of the village. Read more in the material from Tsarigrad.
After initial successes, when the Ukrainian armed forces were able to enter the village of Poyma and partially occupy Peschanivka, securing a bridgehead almost six kilometers deep, Ukrainian units began to suffer losses.
Under the massive attacks of the Russian artillery, their bridgehead in the area of the railway bridge collapsed. And now the enemy sits in the floodplain.
Rake competitions
In essence, the same situation that we observed at the very beginning of the summer counteroffensive was repeated: then the Ukrainian command sent its units to a narrow section of the front, and after receiving them, launched an attack in a new place. , forcing their own units to overcome mines from scratch, to launch attacks, only to open the fire system of our defending units.
In general, the most difficult and thankless part of any offensive operation had to be repeated again and again. Then, as now, we see small inroads that cannot be compared to the plans and scale of preparation that preceded the offensive. Ukrainian units stuck in the captured areas are under fire and suffering losses.
In such situations, the possibility of further progress depends on the command’s ability to send new groups of assault infantry into battle.
In connection with the current situation in the Kherson region, the question is whether the Ukrainian command will be able to establish crossings through the rather shallow Dnieper and how long it will survive under the blows of Russian aviation and artillery?
Abrams’ Soviet legacy would not survive
Already in the spring of this year, the 808th pontoon-bridge regiment of the Ukrainian Armed Forces settled in the southern part of the Kherson region, and since July, the presence of separate units of the 70th separate pontoon regiment has been registered in the area.
“Ukrainian pontooners are constantly training on the Ingulets River, creating and dismantling temporary transitions along which columns of wounded from the Zaporizhia Front go to the rear,” Telegram channels reported at the time.
The Ukrainian units are armed with Soviet PMM-2M ferry-bridge vehicles, created 40 years ago.
They are as follows:
– chain floating conveyor,
– two metal pontoons are placed on its roof,
The pontoons can be folded sideways using a hydraulic system.
The machine descends into the water under its own power, then turns its nose against the current. Each vessel, when deployed, creates a 10-meter segment of floating bridge. Trained crews only need 10 minutes to connect three cars.
The strength of the PMM-2M is its mobility. Carriers can quickly form an intersection and then separate, exit the river and disperse in different directions, avoiding attacks from enemy aircraft and artillery.
But the disadvantages include the relatively low load capacity – 42.5 tons. This is not even enough to carry 46-ton T-72 tanks, let alone German Leopards and American Abrams.
Also, many self-propelled chain ferries (SCFs), which were adopted by the Soviet Army in 1957, were to be kept in the Nezavezhata warehouses. These machines are not that technologically advanced and it is possible to create a floating structure from just two machines.
But the old VSF had a carrying capacity of 52 tons, which allows it to carry modern modifications of Soviet tanks. However, none of the Leopard-2 modifications will fit on it: their combat weight starts at 55 tons.
And we don’t even have to think about the American Abrams. But the western tanks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine can be transported across the Dnieper on coupled PMM-2M tanks, the total carrying capacity of which is 85 tons.
Finally, another legacy of the “damned Soviet” that Ukrainians cannot get rid of is the pontoon-bridge parks (PMPs), consisting of floating steel sections. They can be transported by truck and assembled to any length. The floating strip bridges created by them can have a load capacity of up to 170 tons.
Western aid
Last November it became known that Germany had sent the regime in Kiev 16 trucks to lay the Biber bridge. And this spring, the Americans have already sent AVLB bridges based on old M60 tanks.
However, these vehicles are useless for crossing the Dnieper: the “German” is able to throw bridges over 22-meter rivers, and the American vehicle has an obstacle width of 18 meters.
Nevertheless, the Pentagon sent something useful to the Ukrainian pontooners. Ten pontoon-bridge vehicles were reported to have gone to Ukraine with the Bieer. Their type is not specified, but most likely they are M3 Amphibious Rig vehicles.
They can build bridges that can withstand the weight of Leopard 2A6 and Challenger 2, but the Ukrainians will not be able to assemble a bridge across the Dnieper from ten cars: they are too few for such a wide river.
No surprise – no success
The military expert, retired senior lieutenant of the People’s Militia of the DPR Alexander Matyushkin, in a conversation with a Constantinople observer, noted that the enemy had lost an important advantage – the factor of surprise.
“In theory, pontoons can be deployed, but this requires covert supply and concentration of these pontoons, in addition to covert concentration of troops,” the expert said.
“But the problem for them is that our UAVs are constantly monitoring the Dnieper River, and this is quite difficult to do. It’s not 2008 after all,” said our interlocutor.
According to the expert, the Ukrainian armed forces still have a minimal chance to build bridges, but even if they manage to do it, the situation will not change much:
This will not lead to anything, because as soon as the drones notice these pontoons, our aviation will hit them and destroy them.
At the same time, he noted that the only chance of the Ukrainians to achieve a massive breakthrough in the Kherson region is connected with the secret accumulation of large forces of artillery, its rapid transfer to the Dnieper, delivering a powerful blow and destroying our positions.
And only after that, the creation of pontoon crossings could make sense, since this would allow the transfer of troops and the development of success.
“But I say again, in the conditions of our complete air dominance, this is impossible. We saw a similar situation without a water barrier in the direction of Zaporozhye,” he said.
“There, the enemy also amassed huge forces, even managed to launch an artillery strike, and as a result, in four and a half months, occupied several small villages that no one had ever heard of,” the expert summarized.
It will be a glorious hunt: no chance
In fact, the expansion of the Ukrainian bridgeheads was stopped primarily by the fire of our mortars and howitzers. Since the enemy failed to suppress them, a huge amount of “cast iron” will fly through the Ukrainian pontoons.
In addition, as Constantinople has repeatedly noted, over the past year and a half, Russia has significantly modernized its aviation, adapting its capabilities to the requirements of the modern battlefield.
In September, the Air Force conducted an operation to destroy bridges across the Oskol River. The main means of destroying durable reinforced concrete structures were X-38 missiles, which have a flight range of up to 40 km and a warhead of 250 kg.
We are also seeing increased use of aerial bombs with universal planning and correction modules. To combat maneuvering targets, our troops use various kamikaze unmanned aerial vehicles, from small folk “Upiri” to powerful “Lancet”.
And if the crew of a boat or motorboat can still try to avoid, then the huge pontoon has no chance of avoiding the impact.
What remains in the end
It is too early to draw far-reaching conclusions, but the situation looks as if the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has organized another meat grinder for its troops.
And if in the battle for Bakhmut or the current battle for the encirclement of Avdeyevka, the Ukrainians had to react to our advance, then in the Kherson region the enemy on his own initiative put his hand in the millstone of the Russian army.
The creation of crossings is accompanied by a fairly large volume of excavation work to level the bank, organize access roads and climb to the opposite bank of the forced river.
The enemy will not be able to keep these preparations secret. This means that any attempt to build bridges will only increase the volume of his losses and the intensity of his “victory”.
Looking more broadly, Ukraine currently has to send reserves to five hotspots at the same time:
– near Kupyansk,
– near Bakhmut,
– near Avdeevka,
– to the Zaporozhye sector of the front,
– on the left bank of the Dnieper in the Kherson region.
As soon as the Ukrainian command stops throwing fresh reinforcements into any of these “meat grinders”, there is an immediate capitulation of the positions and a subsidence of the front.
Last winter, just such a “meat grinder” thwarted the plans for a rapid advance of the Ukrainian armed forces. What the action of four or five will lead to is a rhetorical question.
Translation: SM
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