by Lorenzo Cremonesi
With the soldiers of the 103rd brigade in the use between Slowjansk and Suedonezk: “The enemy is poorly trained, but its strength is numerical.” You can also fight on the computer in the barracks
FROM OUR SEND
NORTHERN DONBASS – “We have the ability to stop the Russians before they occupy Donbass, in fact we can attack and liberate all Ukrainian territory up to the 1991 borders”. Perhaps British Prime Minister Boris Johnson should have jumped here on the front line along the Seversky-Donets River, practically in the middle of today’s stage of the war, before saying in the last few hours that the Ukrainian army is now going through a stage of the war ” tired” in the face of the fire and steel storm that Putin’s army is unleashing: because the tone of the speeches and the mood of the troops seem far from defeatism or feelings of inferiority.
This is not to hide the difficulties: undoubtedly, the soldiers and officers who met yesterday at the headquarters of the 103rd brigade, stationed about forty kilometers in the regions between Sloviansk and Severodonetsk, admit that they are having the “most difficult” time experience in recent months. However, we still believe that we can do it. “We have no alternatives, we have to win, because Putin’s dream of conquering all of Ukraine is the commander of the unit, 51-year-old Colonel Valery Kurko. Their barracks have already been attacked by the Russians several times. A month and a half ago, they were attacked by a Missing rocket who demanded several victims. The colonel therefore prefers not to keep the meeting in an area of the bush far away and covered by camouflage networks.
«I feel deeply European, we are the first defense of your democracies. Of course, we hope for the arrival of your weapons, especially heavy artillery, to counter the Russian ones. But what really matters is that Putin’s European countries drastically isolate Russia once and for all. I would rather not receive anything from you, but be sure that you have severed all economic, commercial, diplomatic and other ties with Moscow,” Kurko comments on the results of the visit of Draghi, Macron and Scholz to Kyiv three days ago. As for the military situation, he reiterates that the Russians are generally “unmotivated, poorly trained, without initiative and therefore very predictable”, but their strength remains “the incredibly high number of men and means that they are ready to go into the field to pull and lose even in minor operations ».
These are sentences that we have already heard, even at the time of the challenges for Kyiv and Charkiw, but now they are particularly emphasized in Donbass. “For each of our shots, they fire ten or even twenty, often inaccurate and yet they make a burned earth, clear the way for the infantry,” says one of the officers. Among the problems to be overcome is the river’s low water in summer, which in some places can now be crossed on foot, making it easier for Russian patrols. To our right we constantly hear howitzer drumming at Severodonetsk and Lysyhansk: there is a danger that the Russians stationed in front of our sector will try to break through to Sloviansk and encircle the entire Lugansk province from the north. But the soldiers of the 103rd seem confident. “The Russians concentrated their entire army in a few tens of kilometers. And in spite of everything, we firmly believe that this is a victory: Putin’s military machine turns out to be a paper tiger. Our intelligence tells us they drove unguarded to Donetsk where they were stopped at the 2014 lines. In the last few days our General Staff decided to try to recapture Kherson, we don’t know if they will succeed, but in the meantime the Russians will be forced to recall their troops to send them south without guarding the Donbass “, explain it.
The fields all around are lush, the soldiers are spread out among the farmhouses, the course of the river draws a deep furrow in the vegetation. From a clearing near the base, some very young soldiers tend to the drones, which they only use for reconnaissance within a 10 km radius of the enemy’s skies. “This war is basically a challenge between drones. The Russians have very well trained men in this field: we lose an average of two drones a day. It’s like a video game, we try to disrupt each other, the winner is whoever manages to radio down the opponent’s drone while staying in the air,” they explain. In a barracks at the edge of the field, soldier Taras, a veteran 52-year-old programmer, sits on a bench with the computer on his knees to decode the images being broadcast in real time by the drone that’s just approaching Russian Tail. “See that armored vehicle? – asks shows the screen -. He might soon be hit by our artillery.’ For a few days there have been rumors that the Russians are preparing a new attack from the river. He comments: “We’re talking about it, but from what I can see it doesn’t seem imminent.”
June 18, 2022 (change June 18, 2022 | 22:49)
© REPRODUCTION RESERVED