Ukraine offensive stuck: “They have mined the area and are shooting at us every hour”

Bakhmut is said to be the flank where the local counterattack advances the most. infinite fields mines brought forward by the occupying forces and air superiority Ukraine. same week, colonel general Oleksandr SyrskyiThe commander of the Ukrainian Land Army said that his army had managed to “partially encircle the city” and that “all conditions were met to regain control”. However, it’s an optimism that contradicts the story from the trenches. ‘Ded’ clearly describes Ukrainian forces outnumbered and unarmed by the Russian army without ingenuity high positions who surrounded the city and had to go on foot to escape swarms of mines. And all this, with very little support modern western weaponsAccording to the Ukrainian military, this would have been largely devoted to other parts of the front.

“The open field is mined and leaves you very exposed. forest scarecrows under constant attack in the region russian artillery”, with pauses explains ‘Ded’, who has led an itinerant existence since the invasion began. defense Kyiv, the Recapture of Kherson and endless Donbas war. “We had to walk to get to the front line. Eight kilometers at 35 degrees temperature with weapons, water and food, because there are no driving conditions”. The Way of the Cross watched carefully from the air by russian drones and often sprinkled enemy bullets. It emphasizes that the losses are constant.

Numerous casualties on both sides

“For the eight kilometers we encountered corpse-filled roads, both our and Russian soldiers. And it is very difficult to evacuate the wounded when you are constantly being shot at. As a general rule, you need five people to evacuate a single body”, adds front. Your unit has only six fully-formed soldiers left to fight; the rest are dead or injured.

Panorama is further south, not much different on the facades. herson And Zaporizhia, the region where the Russian defense forces are most concentrated. Until three zigzag lines separated from each other related to anti-tank trenches‘dragon teeth’, bunkers and minefields. A formidable defensive net attributed to General Sergey Surovikin, who commanded the Kremlin forces in Ukraine from last fall until this January and has been missing since his involvement with the Wagner uprising in Russia. There, too, the Ukrainian forces did not advance much. Only in some isolated spots could Kiev succeed in penetrating. Russia’s first line of defense.

“There is the problem of expectations. Pressure is being put on Ukraine to move forward to continue military aid, but the truth is, stabilized facades inside position battleIt is very difficult to break the fronts”, says Guillem Colom, professor of Politics at Pablo de Olavide University and author of an article on the war in Ukraine. An analysis not unlike the one the Ukrainian president made a month ago when asked about pressure from his allies. “Some people are film Hollywood and they expect instant results but not like that,” said Volodymyr Zelensky.

A frozen fear of conflict

From Kiev it is guaranteed that part of the problem lies in Ukraine. received only 15% of mine clearance vehicles Promised by their Western allies. Oryx, a portal that takes inventory of weapons from both sides, only 30 armored to clean anti-tank and counter-personnel mines That Russia hid in front and behind, and only half of them were able to act under enemy fire. “We don’t have enough machinery, people and time to clear the fields. These are not expensive equipment, but without them it is very difficult to move forward. They use a lot of mines,” says ‘Ded’ from the front. It should be added that the lack new generation warriors Airplanes that Ukraine continues to demand from its partners, even though it has already received US cluster bombs, to protect its troops from the air.

“It is very likely that the counterattack will not go according to plan. The big surprise was the mines, says Oleksiy Melnik, an analyst at the Kiev-based Razumkov Center. According to Zelinski, Russia would have removed mines 200,000 square kilometersan extension six times higher than Catalonia. “All military manuals say you have to bombard enemy defenses for days or weeks before sending infantry, but without air superiority it’s very difficult.”

‘Ded’ from the Bakhmut front is confident in their future more western weapons. He is aware that time is running out against ukraine, had to advance to maintain allied support. “We are afraid that conflict frozen in autumn or winter. This forces us to give up our lands, albeit temporarily, so we try to recover as much as possible. “I hope Europe and the United States continue to think that a free and peaceful Ukraine is in their best interests.”