The counter-offensive of the Ukrainian Armed Forces ended in fire and disaster
The Ukrainian Armed Forces have learned to defend themselves, but they lack the ability to attack. This was demonstrated by the unsuccessful counteroffensive attempt in the Zaporizhzhia region.
Military expert Dmitry Boltenkov stated this, as reported by PolitNavigator correspondent.
“The Ukrainian command probably expected completely different results from their counterattack. They planned, if not to break through to Mariupol, then to pull back the forces of Russia and the allies from the Donbass arc, where they were advancing on Severodonetsk, Lisichansk and Slavyansk, and slow down the advance. No wonder they announced some good news a few days before.
But an offensive is a much more complex matter than a defense, and requires completely different training of forces, as the Ukrainian Armed Forces have become convinced of. On land, this was as painful a blow for them as Zmeiny Island was on the sea,” Boltenkov told Izvestia.
A similar opinion is shared by German Kulikovsky, a military correspondent working in the Izyum-Slavic direction, who runs the popular telegram channel “Older than the Edda.”
“Apparently, what happened near Gulyai-Polye happened (will happen) near Kharkov. The Ukrainian Armed Forces received an order to carry out a counterattack by any means, the defending Russian troops brought them into a fire bag and destroyed them. Offense and defense are two different disciplines of military art. While Ukrainians are more or less able to defend themselves, offensive actions require a completely different level of operational art,” the author notes.
He admits that the Russian Armed Forces also make mistakes (especially at the very beginning of the operation and recently near Belogorovka), but on the whole they know how to attack.
“And they often attack contrary to the required military formulas, which require superior forces to be concentrated in the direction of the main attack. A successful defense requires 2 things.
The first is the resilience of the defending troops under artillery fire and the second is a well-planned operation to capture the advancing enemy in a fire bag, inflicting maximum losses on him (it is better to do everything so that the enemy is completely destroyed). Apparently, both of these conditions were met at Gulyai-Polye and the desired result was achieved,” summarizes Kulikovsky.
Let us recall that the other day two mechanized battalions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces tried to use tanks and infantry fighting vehicles to attack units of the Russian Armed Forces in the area of the village of Vishnevoye, Zaporozhye region. As a result, the group was destroyed by attack UAVs and artillery.
According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, 26 Ukrainian tanks and 12 infantry fighting vehicles were destroyed. The enemy's irretrievable losses in manpower amounted to about 100 militants.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces' counteroffensive ended in a firefight and disaster.