Russia Shifting Troops From Mariupol To Eastern Ukraine – The Russian military has once again changed its aims publicly and now says that they plan on taking not only the eastern but the southern area of Ukraine and moving toward the Russian-backed separatist area in Transinistra inside the small country of Moldava.
Major General Rustam Minnekaev, the deputy commander of the Central Military District told the Russian news media on Friday that “Since the start of the second phase of the special operation…one of the tasks of the Russian army is to establish full control over the Donbas and southern Ukraine.”
“Control over the south of Ukraine is another way out to Transnistria, where there are cases of Russian-speaking people being oppressed,” Minnekaev added. That contradicts what Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the outset of the war. Putin claimed that Russia’s “special military operation” had no intention of occupying Ukraine but only sought to “denazify and demilitarize the country.”
With the battle in Mariupol largely over, the Russians after weeks of intensive bombardment that has reduced most of the city to rubble, now have their land bridge from Crimea to the eastern separatist-held regions of the country.
Russian Shifting Troops to the Eastern Donbas
And because the Ukrainian forces are now sealed off in the Azovstal Steel Plant, the Russians have begun shifting a large number of units from Mariupol to the eastern Donbas where the fighting has been raging.
The Russians have reportedly shifted 12-14 of their frontline units from Mariupol in the past few days and sending them to the east. The surrounded Ukrainian forces and civilians holed up in the steel plant have been pounded by artillery and airstrikes. “Every day they drop several bombs on Azovstal,” said Petro Andryushchenko, an adviser to Mariupol’s mayor. “Fighting, shelling, bombing do not stop.”
However, despite the large Russian push to take Ukraine’s industrial heartland, fierce Ukrainian counterattacks have largely negated their advances in the region. They claim to have stopped cold eight Russian attacks in the two regions, destroying nine tanks, 18 armored units and 13 vehicles, a tanker, and three artillery systems, Ukraine’s General Staff said.
“Units of Russian occupiers are regrouping. Russian enemy continues to launch missile and bomb strikes on military and civilian infrastructure,” the General Staff said in a post on its Facebook page. The British Defense Ministry said that the Russians had made no significant advances in the past 24 hours.
Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said in a statement to the AP that over 100,000 Russian troops are fighting in Ukraine and that they have been bolstered by an unknown number of mercenaries from Syria and Ukraine. He added that more troops keep pouring in. “We have a difficult situation, but our army is defending our state,” Danilov said.
“It will now be difficult for our forces because our guys in Mariupol were taking (the redeployed Russian units) on themselves, it is their courage and feat,” Danilov added.
Russian Problems Continue to Plague Their Invasion
While the strategic shift in their aims in the eastern Donbas industrial heartland has shortened their lines and made their logistical lifeline shorter, much of the same issues that have plagued the Russian invasion continue.
They have not had proper coordination between their air force and ground units, something the US and the West practice on a consistent basis. As a result, ground units operating without a protective umbrella from above are subject to very effective Ukrainian ambushes which have exacted a heavy toll on road-bound Russian armored formations.
Their command and control have been hampered by the formation of numerous battalion tactical groups. These 800-man units were each given specific missions and were operating independently of one another and had poor coordination which resulted in many attacks being piecemeal.
The logistical and communication nightmares still exist and Russian commanders have been forced to communicate via unsecured cellphones which leaves them vulnerable to artillery strikes.
And rather than redeploy, regroup, and re-arming its units that have suffered heavy casualties, they’ve thrown them back into the fray as they try to gain a large battlefield victory prior to the May 9, Victory Day parade in Moscow, where the Russians celebrate the surrender of the Germans during “The Great Patriotic War” which is how they characterize World War II.
The Ukrainian will to fight and keep resisting is only growing stronger and the fighting in the Donbas is expected to be even more costly.
Steve Balestrieri is a 1945 National Security Columnist. He has served as a US Army Special Forces NCO and Warrant Officer before injuries forced his early separation. In addition to writing for 19fortyfive.com, he has covered the NFL for PatsFans.com for more than 10 years and his work was regularly featured in the Millbury-Sutton Chronicle and Grafton News newspapers in Massachusetts.
sprinter
April 23, 2022 at 9:58 am
The original invasion force was 150,000, of which 84,000 are either dead or wounded, leaving 66,000. The article states current invasion force is 100,000, so 2/3 of the Russian force have had no respite from the toll of the first invasion attempt.
Pareto, analysis regarding the original invasion indicates military efficiency was reduced consecutively to 20% then 4% and finally ,0.8%.
If the Pareto, analysis is correct, only 34,000 invaders can be credited with full military efficiency.
It seems unlikely that 34,000 invaders will be able to provide the standard 3 to 1 advantage required for an invading force to overwhelm the defenders.
Nb. Pareto, was an Italian economist, who discovered the 20/80 ratio, whereby 20% of causes created 80% of results.
War by its nature tends to cause casualties to the leading force of an invader, which tends to validate the use of Pareto, analysis.
Tokyo Woes
April 23, 2022 at 3:19 pm
nice
Stefan Stackhouse
April 23, 2022 at 9:18 pm
The May 9th breakthrough isn’t going to happen. I suspect that Putin and his senior team know full well that it can’t happen. This leads me to suspect that the May 9th story might actually be disinformation. Also, a lot of the Russian actions along the Donbas front so far might be more in the nature of “probing” rather than a serious attempt at a breakthrough and encirclement. I suspect that Putin and his generals know full well that they won’t be able to do that until the mud dries up. Meanwhile, they can obtain good intel on the disposition of the Ukrainian forces, and keep them pinned down along the front instead of retreating or reinforcing their flanks. They can also use their missiles and air power to attempt to interdict the supply lines, preventing much of the heavier NATO equipment from getting to the Donbas.
When the real move finally comes, there will be no doubt about it.
Alex
April 24, 2022 at 4:21 am
So who is losing? Obviously not Russia.
American Colonel Martin spoke about Biden’s failure in Ukraine.
US President Joe Biden has failed in his policy towards Ukraine. This opinion was expressed in a column on The Washington Post website by retired American Colonel Wes Martin.
The head of the White House, as noted in the material, tried to prevent the Ukrainian conflict by diplomatic measures – and could not. The author referred to the statement of the former acting. CIA Director Michael Morell, who expressed the opinion that Biden’s attacks on Russian leader Vladimir Putin only “rallied the beleaguered Russian elite.” “Not a single citizen of Russia will put up with the fact that the main enemy of his state inspires him what kind of power in his country can be and what is not,” Martin quoted Morell as saying.
“Proving once again that he is nowhere near Reagan, Biden publicly called Putin a ‘butcher’ and a ‘war criminal.’ through Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin,” the author of the material noted.
Ukraine and Afghanistan are far from the only reasons why Biden’s ratings have slipped to an all-time low of 42 percent. People, Martin notes, are unimpressed by his foreign policy experience. Do not add popularity and record inflation of 8.5 percent and a sharp rise in energy prices – the harbingers of a recession.
At the end of March, NBC News published the results of a poll, according to which 53 percent of Americans believe that the country will begin a long-term recession, which will lead to the loss of American leadership in the world. When answering the question about Biden’s ability to correctly respond to the situation around Ukraine, only 12 percent of respondents expressed complete confidence in the actions of the head of administration.
CNN, in turn, reported that the confidence rating of US President Joe Biden has reached a record low. According to a generalized analysis of polls published by four organizations last week, the level of confidence in the US president is about 41%, and according to one of them – only 33%. This is a record low compared to all of Biden’s predecessors in the same period of the presidential term.
CK
April 26, 2022 at 10:49 am
If someone wanted to know the truth about anything in Ukraine Alex, the last person they would go to is you.
Paragraphs and paragraphs of bollocks, dubious claims about “independent journalists”, random documentarians, conspiracy theorists, deluded claims that of course, have no backup, lie after lie after lie.
Classical Kremlin troll approach. Just flood the internet, the comments, the media, with tosh, doesn’t matter what it is, just make sure you write some old nonsense. Make sure to say the claim is supported by some dude in Germany, France, the states. If it’s a “documentary” (usually from youtube) then the better.
Anything that victimises Russia, always the victim, always the bullied, never the problem. It’s always the Nazis. It’s always some pseudo-historical point.
Anyone that has had the misfortune to study your “tactics” sees the forest for the trees, the pattern of lies, disinformation, blanketing of random claims, deflection, obfuscation, and other words beyond your vocabulary.
It’s hopeless Alex. Your lies are as short as your intellect. What a pathetic job, to sit in your government shed, spreading your pathetic, government lies.
A pathetic job for a truly pathetic man. A better match could not be made in heaven.
Alex
April 29, 2022 at 9:18 am
If someone wants to know the truth about the civil war in the Donbass, about all the atrocities of the Bandera clean-ups and why Russia was forced to intervene, then it is better to watch films by independent journalists. There are already many such journalists who fight for truth and freedom. For example, a documentary by the German journalist Wilhelm Domcke-Schulz.
A documentary film about the war crimes of the Bandera Nazis during the period of Russia’s special military operation to denazify and demilitarize Ukraine is in production. It will be a real information bomb, where the war crimes of Bandera Nazis will be shown and proved.
The documentary “Remember Odessa” tells how the Bandera Nazis burned Ukrainians alive and other heinous war crimes.
The documentary “To Live and Die in Donbass” tries to fill this gaping information gap in the West. He looks into the tormented soul of the inhabitants of Donbass, who really want only one thing – to live self-determining according to their own rules and values. Not submitting to foreign forces and ideologies.
In the east of Ukraine, in the Donbass, a war has been raging since the beginning of 2014. A civil war that claimed more than 15,000 lives over the years, including several hundred children. They had to die, because the national-fascist coup government in Kyiv, funded by the West, trained and militarily heavily armed, would not tolerate any resistance to their illegitimate rule, no matter the cost.
Therefore, in April 2014, the putschists deployed the Ukrainian army, supported by dozens of right-wing extremist volunteer battalions, and have since bombed city centers, residential areas, schools, hospitals and infrastructure, killing civilians.
This perennial crime has gone completely unnoticed by the Western public. Politicians and the media avoid this topic and reports about how the devil pours holy water. Because a public discussion about the crimes of the Ukrainian regime would reveal only one thing – with what mass murderers and terrorists the so-called “west of values” in Ukraine has a common language, if only to defend their goals and interests.
Lend-lease is a commodity loan, and not cheap: for all the ammunition, equipment and food supplied by the United States, many future generations of Ukrainian citizens will pay. Zelensky is driving the country into a debt hole.
CK
April 29, 2022 at 1:50 pm
Ah, I see your tactic. You add a little shitty first paragraph so it doesn’t detect your duplicate post. Is this what it has come to now, you just posting the same exact post 2, 3, 4, 5 times per article?
Wow, did they run out of paper in Russia, Alex? You guys can’t print new material? Literally using the same lines, over and over again, and now in duplicate in every post!
Are you so defeated you can’t even come up with anything new? How sad. Now the idiot is talking about lend-lease at the end of his post, because he literally just copy + pasted it from another thread, with zero relevance to this one.
Here’s a reminder:
If someone wanted to know the truth about anything in Ukraine Alex, the last person they would go to is you.
Paragraphs and paragraphs of bollocks, dubious claims about “independent journalists”, random documentarians, conspiracy theorists, deluded claims that of course, have no backup, lie after lie after lie.
Classical Kremlin troll approach. Just flood the internet, the comments, the media, with tosh, doesn’t matter what it is, just make sure you write some old nonsense. Make sure to say the claim is supported by some dude in Germany, France, the states. If it’s a “documentary” (usually from youtube) then the better.
Anything that victimises Russia, always the victim, always the bullied, never the problem. It’s always the Nazis. It’s always some pseudo-historical point.
Anyone that has had the misfortune to study your “tactics” sees the forest for the trees, the pattern of lies, disinformation, blanketing of random claims, deflection, obfuscation, and other words beyond your vocabulary.
It’s hopeless Alex. Your lies are as short as your intellect. What a pathetic job, to sit in your government shed, spreading your pathetic, government lies.
A pathetic job for a truly pathetic man. A better match could not be made in heaven.