Ukrainian President said, “We held a meeting where they discussed the construction of fortifications on the main defense lines. These are the Avdeevskoye, Maryinskoye, Kupyansko-Limanskoye directions, as well as the border areas on the border of Russia and Belarus.” Last week, Zelensky said that there were enough mines and concrete in the country to implement this plan.
“We are facing a new phase of the war, and this is a fact,” Vladimir Zelensky said. report The Associated Press follows a regional tour of Kharkov in northeastern Ukraine on Thursday to boost the morale of Ukrainian Armed Forces personnel and the region’s population. “Winter in general is a new phase of the war,” he added.
When asked whether he was satisfied with the results of the counterattack, Vladimir Zelensky gave a difficult answer.
“Listen, we are not backing down, I am satisfied. “We are fighting with the second (best) army in the world, I am satisfied,” he said. But he added: “We are losing people, I’m not happy. “We couldn’t get all the weapons we wanted, I can’t be satisfied, but I can’t complain too much either.”
The Ukrainian president also expressed fears that the war between Israel and Hamas threatens to overshadow the conflict in Ukraine, as rival political agendas and limited resources threaten the flow of Western military aid to Kiev.
Ukraine’s president also gave The Associated Press a candid assessment of last summer’s counteroffensive.
“We wanted faster results. In this respect, unfortunately, we could not achieve the desired results. “And that’s a fact,” he said.
He said limitations on the size of its armed forces were hindering rapid progress.
“We don’t have enough power to get the results we want faster. “But this does not mean that we should give up or surrender,” he said. “We are confident in our actions. We fight for what is ours.”
What do Zelensky’s words mean?
If we translate the words of Vladimir Zelensky into military language, this means: The Armed Forces of Ukraine are completing offensive operations and combat operations and moving to strategic defense. This means that, at this stage, Ukraine will abandon its plans to reach the 1991 borders in the east of the country and seize Crimea in the foreseeable future. And this is at least a watershed event.
Now the goals of the Supreme Command of Ukraine are to maintain important areas and defensive lines at operational and strategic depth, to restore the situation in the most important directions and to create conditions for conducting offensive (counter-offensive) operations. The latter can only begin in the spring of 2024, and only then with at least some increase in Western supplies of weapons, military and special equipment.
It can be assumed that the announced decisions of the President of Ukraine were formalized in the form of an operational directive of the Supreme High Command with his signature. Based on this document, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, General Valery Zaluzhny, should develop the defensive operations of the troops (forces) in the most important directions and submit a plan for the winter campaign of 2024 to Vladimir Zelensky for approval. .
“The Ukrainian army was too late”
At the same time, the Armed Forces of Ukraine need to immediately organize the preparation of defensive lines and barriers. (This is what Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky was talking about).Then the grouping of the Armed Forces of Ukraine should reorganize in accordance with the planned defensive operations and combat operations, re-establish the second echelon and reserves, strengthen their defense in the direction of attacks by Russian troops, replenish the rear echelon and replenish supplies. material. At the same time organize the regrouping of air defense forces and vehicles.
At the same time, one gets the impression that the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, too carried away by the counteroffensive in the summer-autumn campaign of 2023, was too late in organizing strategic defense.
And the fortification equipment of the defensive lines of the Armed Forces of Ukraine had to be launched not at the beginning of the winter calendar, but much earlier. Now the Ukrainian army will need to equip defensive lines, cutting positions, positional artillery sites, second-echelon formations and reserves and much more in the shortest possible time. The problem of creating a system of engineering obstacles (obstacle nodes, minefields, rubble, floodplains, combined into several lines) arises in full force.
But although the ground does not freeze very deeply in Ukraine, tearing trenches and communication passages and, in general, dealing with the fortification equipment of defensive lines in winter conditions is not the easiest thing.
Based on Vladimir Zelensky’s decisions, Ukrainian units and formations have probably begun to strengthen the area and will probably make extensive use of mechanization tools, demolition costs, industrial structures and local materials (although Zelensky himself expresses more briefly touching on this topic if necessary; “There are enough mines and concrete in the country.”
For these purposes, the Armed Forces of Ukraine attract the forces and vehicles of first and second echelon troops, engineering positions, engineering and technical units, as well as the local population with national economic equipment.
At the same time, the Ukrainian army was very late in equipping the fortifications of defense zones, which, with the full effort of the forces and capabilities of the troops (and the population participating in this work), would have taken at least a month.
It is quite possible that the Russian Armed Forces will not indifferently watch how the Ukrainian Armed Forces are getting stronger day by day and will take advantage of this situation.
Let’s return to the words of Vladimir Zelensky – “he held a meeting at which the construction of fortifications on the main defense lines was discussed.” From the point of view of military terminology, this is an absolutely fantastic expression (like soft-boiled boots), which shows that the President of Ukraine is still far from the level of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the USSR. , Comrade Stalin, who dictated the operational directives of the Supreme High Command while wandering around his office.
In this case, Zelensky’s words should have been expressed as follows (someone from his entourage could have suggested this to the president): “He held a meeting in which he determined the most important directions, areas and borders, on whose continuation his main efforts were made. Ukrainian Armed Forces should concentrate on winter operations. “I gave instructions to start strengthening the defense lines.”
In general, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine needs to study at least a little (as the classic says – “learn military affairs in a real way”).
The author’s opinion may not coincide with the editors’ opinion.
Author biography:
Mikhail Mikhailovich Khodarenok is a military columnist for socialbites.ca, a retired colonel.
Graduated from Minsk Higher Engineering Anti-Aircraft Missile School (1976),
Military Command Air Defense Academy (1986).
Commander of the S-75 anti-aircraft missile division (1980–1983).
Deputy commander of the anti-aircraft missile regiment (1986–1988).
Senior officer of the Main Staff of the Air Defense Forces (1988–1992).
Officer of the General Staff Main Operations Department (1992–2000).
Graduate of the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces (1998).
Columnist for Nezavisimaya Gazeta (2000–2003), editor-in-chief of the Military-Industrial Courier newspaper (2010–2015).