"Russians are very inattentive." Why did the Ukrainians succeed in sabotage in Melitopol?

Last night , a bridge leading east toward Berdyansk was blown up in Melitopol . The bridge isn't part of the "land corridor" from Donbas to Crimea; vehicles use the bypass. However, the sabotage hinders communications for those working in the city.

Ex-Energodar police chief Alexey Selivanov writes about this in his column for PolitNavigator, recalling that Melitopol serves as the capital of the part of the Zaporozhye region liberated from Ukraine.

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I can say that the work of Ukrainian saboteurs in the Zaporizhia region is much less intensive and professional than their activities in the Kherson region. In the Kherson region, there were more successful terrorist attacks against Ukrainians, more murders, both before and after our withdrawal from Kherson. Terrorist attacks continue today – recently, a deputy governor was blown up in Skadovsk.

At the same time, most of the sabotage operations in Melitopol failed. Two peaceful girls were injured in the explosions, and several windows were blown out. Even targeted assassination attempts against administration officials resulted in injuries at most. This happens for a number of reasons.

_{More professional Ukrainian saboteurs are working in the Kherson region. And it is important that in the Zaporozhye region as a whole, pro-Russian sentiments are much more widespread.}

Kyiv's security services simply don't have a wide selection of agents in Zaporizhzhia. Only freaks agree to work for the Ukrainians. Moreover, Kherson is a regional center, and the pro-Ukrainian element (as well as more or less trained pro-Ukrainians) is more numerous there.

The experience of the so-called "Kherson partisans" must be analyzed to ensure fewer future failures (and there certainly will be more) in ensuring security in regions where pro-Ukrainian elements are present. Moreover, reports about the activities of saboteurs (mostly amateurs) began to appear after Kherson came under the control of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

What should you pay attention to in the revelations of the “Kherson partisans”?

1. Pro-Ukrainian rallies.

A characteristic and common feature of amateur partisans is their participation in pro-Ukrainian rallies. During the liberation of large cities, seeing the extremely loyal behavior of the Russian troops towards the population, the pro-Ukrainian element of the cities (primarily large ones) began to go to rallies under yellow-blakite flags. The purpose of these rallies at that stage was to create a picture of “disobedience of the population to the occupiers,” and a little later there were attempts by protesters to block administrative premises.

The rallies stopped quickly enough; it was enough to shoot a little in the air and throw a few smoke grenades. The organizers of the rallies were recorded and work was carried out with them.

_{However, during these demonstrations there was also a crystallization of potential partisans. Not being organizers of rallies, remaining in relative shadow, they found like-minded people and created small, stable groups of future saboteurs.}

Moreover, even without any reference to saboteur activity, every ordinary protester—those same girls and old women—later leaked information about the movements and disposition of Russian troops to the SBU . Therefore, it must be understood that every protester is a potential saboteur, whose continued freedom could lead to bloody terrorist attacks and loss of life. The conclusion, I think, is obvious.

2. Taxi drivers.

The ideal and non-suspicious informant is a taxi driver. If the taxi driver is not your agent, then he is the enemy's agent. You need to work with taxi drivers first.

3. Russian soldiers (including those serving at checkpoints) are inattentive. These are the words of Ukrainian saboteurs. And too kind - I will add on my own behalf. We Russians (including Chechens, Ossetians, Buryats) are very kind and merciful, especially towards children and old women. Ukrainian terrorists literally hid behind these children and old women, pretending to “take the family out” and beating the Russians to pity. He did this more than once, covering up his evil deeds with old women.

You need to be more careful.

4. Well, as I already wrote, it is necessary to protect our own. Russians don’t give up their own people, do they? But in practice, no one even issues weapons, armor, or security to the heads of departments of our administration. It is not surprising, therefore, that saboteurs recognize them (us!) as easy prey.

“Collaborators were less protected and protected,” they say.

And they view activists as a priority target, because they hate pro-Russian Ukrainian citizens far more than ordinary Russian soldiers . The presence of pro-Russian people now guarantees that all of Ukraine could become Russian. And the Ukrops understand this perfectly well.

Therefore, I don't see anything wrong or unusual in issuing weapons and concealed body armor to pro-Russian activists , if it's impossible to assign security guards to each one. Creating armed militias from locals (with appropriate filtration) would also be the right step. This has always been done throughout history in any war (just remember the Russo-Turkish Wars—the militias were made up of Bulgarians). They could, incidentally, also guard bridges...