Ukrainians make tactical mistakes, and the Russians do not forgive them - this is why the successes of the Russian army in Donbas, according to front-line soldiers.< /p>
"They advance, enter and surround ours" - this is how Artyom Pavlyk, a driver of the Third Company of the 21st Ukrainian Special Task Force, describes the situation on the Kurakhovo front. Until recently, he transported wounded soldiers and the bodies of those killed in ambushes. This is extremely dangerous, as it is happening in the conditions of constant Russian mortar shelling and aerial attacks by drones, he adds.
According to the General Staff of Ukraine, the Kurakhov direction remains one of the most difficult sections at the moment. Russia's success depends on a number of factors, including the length of the front line, says a serviceman nicknamed "Winter". He is a reconnaissance platoon leader of the 35th Marine Corps Brigade.
The rotation of the Ukrainian military
The Russian army is advancing towards Kurakhovo after capturing Gornyaki at the end of October. Before that, it also occupied Novogrodovka and Ocheretino near Pokrovsk. The Russians have been advancing in this direction since February - after the capture of Avdeevka.
One of the factors that led to the occupation of Avdeevka was the rotational shifts of the Ukrainian units, Alexander Pavlov, commander of the reconnaissance battery of the 110th separate mechanized brigade, told DV. This unit defended Avdeevka from March 2022 to February 2024, after which it was replaced by another mechanized brigade. However, the rotation was unsuccessful - the new defenders lacked sufficient combat experience and they lasted only ten days.
"The Russians are not waiting for us to learn"
Alexander Pavlov tells about another rotation of his unit with a motorized infantry brigade, transferred from the Selidovo area. "We knew the terrain perfectly, we had studied every square centimeter. But they sent us in another direction, which we had yet to familiarize ourselves with. The same goes for the part that took our old positions. And the Russians are not waiting for us to learn," says Pavlov bitterly.
Roman Konoplyanka with the nickname "Romeo" also spoke about this. We meet the sergeant major from the First Company of the 21st Separate Battalion in the Donetsk region, where he trains new recruits. "I will give you just one example: one of the strategic directions is held by an amphibious assault brigade, which has all the means - both firepower and motivated personnel, but it has been replaced by a brigade of the Territorial Defense of Ukraine, which has nothing other than a firearm. This had a critical impact on the situation at the front, says Romeo. and adds that he knows of several similar cases.
The Russians are changing their tactics
At the same time, the Russian army is working on its mistakes, say Ukrainian servicemen in the Donetsk region. Almost every month they notice changes in the offensive tactics of the Russians. "In Avdeevka, for example, there was more equipment,", recalls Pavlov.
The Russians have also managed to quickly adapt to the new situation in Ugledar, where in February Ukrainian attack drones destroyed the first column of their armored vehicles, Andrey Nazarenko of the 72nd Brigade told DV. "The next column of equipment was completely protected by various electronic warfare systems and almost none of our drones were able to inflict damage on them," he said.
Furthermore, after Avdeevka, where battles were fought for every house, the Russians gave up attacking larger settlements in this way, Nazarenko continues. "They attack the flanks, cut off supplies and make it impossible to send reinforcements. And without the supply of ammunition, the defense of the settlement becomes impossible, as happened with Ugledar", says the Ukrainian military.
Now in Donetsk, the Russians advance mainly with infantry, but they also use motorcycles. The Russian army adopted the tactics used by the fighters of the private military company "Wagner" in Bakhmut, says Andrey Zimenko, a senior sergeant from the Second Company of the 21st Battalion of the Ukrainian Special Forces. "The first group enters - we call them "camels". That's 5-10 people in full combat gear. We deal with them, but a second group comes - again armed fighters who could fight, but are not trained enough for the purpose. This can continue with more such groups - three or four. Then they send the "reksovet"“, as we call them - fighters with heavy armor and weapons, with no more than two machine guns. They use the "smoked meat" in front of them - the bodies of the fighters from the previous groups - for cover", Zimenko explains this Russian tactic.
His words are confirmed by the platoon commander of the 35th brigade, nicknamed "Winter": "In Kurakhovo, the Russians have numerical superiority and are using manpower to scout and study where our weak points are." We have a different attitude to the available human resource - we try to save human lives as much as possible", he assures.
Acute shortage of military personnel
In the third year of full-scale war, the Ukrainian army is experiencing a critical shortage of men. And this, in turn, affects the combat capability of the units, the soldiers interviewed by DV are convinced. Their observations show that recruits forcibly conscripted lack motivation. "Nobody wants to come here where it's cold and scary. But they have to fight, they have no other choice," says Alexei, nicknamed "Pegasus," a platoon commander from the 21st Special Forces Battalion.
In addition to motivation, the new recruits also lack initial military training, instructors have been complaining for months. "They give them a chance to learn to fight first, and to survive second. I can't understand why they don't take advantage of this chance in the training centers," says Andrey Zimenko. However, according to him, there are also new recruits who receive good training.
The morale of the Ukrainian servicemen is also undermined by the numerical superiority tactics adopted by the Russians. "Until now, we have not seen as much force being thrown forward as the enemy is using for its offensive in Donbas,", the deputy commander of the 68th brigade Nikolay Varentsov told DV.
He fears that after Trump enters the White House, the conflict may be frozen. "Alas, we all know what it means to have a conflict frozen," says "Romeo" from the 21st separate battalion in the Donetsk region.
The advantages of the Russian army
Besides the advantage in manpower, the Russians also surpass the Ukrainians in striking power - in artillery, the ratio is one to three in favor of the Russians, and in some directions even one to five. The same goes for tanks, armored vehicles and reconnaissance vehicles. In addition, the Russians have their own satellites, remind the Ukrainian military.
Another Russian advantage points out Colonel Andrey Zadubiny, head of the Ukrainian army's public relations department: the ability to use its aviation beyond the range of Ukrainian air defenses to strike defensive fortifications and along logistics routes.