The biggest problem for the Armed Forces counter -offensive is mine fields - WP
Often, instead of special vehicles for the exchanging, Ukrainian sappers work on the forefront that try to clear the path for the advancing parts of the Armed Forces, writes The Washington Post.
According to the soldiers and officers of the Ukrainian army, with whom journalists of the US edition spoke, the Armed Forces were preparing for the Counter-offshore of the Armed Forces, and therefore tightly replaced the front areas of the front in front of their defensive borders anti-tank and anti-personnel mines to a depth of 5-16 km. This significantly slowed the promotion of the Ukrainian army. As a result of the defense forces of Ukraine, the offensive strategy had to be changed.
Instead of trying to break through with the help of infantry fighting vehicles and tanks that Western allies have provided Ukraine, the units are slowly moving forward. The Commander -in -Chief of the Armed Forces Valery Zaluzhny in a recent interview with The Washington Post stated that it was very difficult to make a breakthrough with tanks, because sooner or later they would be hit by the enemy.
According to Zaluzhny, Ukraine requires more special equipment for remote demining, as Russians also destroy this equipment. The publication talked with one of the Ukrainian officials, who, under the conditions of anonymity, stated that Ukraine received less than 15% of the technique for mine miners invited by the West. And some of this equipment came only last week.
The publication writes that the breakthrough of the Armed Forces of the Armed Forces revealed the vulnerability of armored personnel carriers and tanks, especially the American Bradley and German Leopard. But at the same time, they are praised by the Ukrainian military, because even after a blast on the mines of this technique, most people survive, with only easy injuries. US officials stated that before the counter -offensive they provided almost all types of equipment that it invited Ukraine.
US officials also stated that it is not always possible to provide the amount of equipment asked by Ukraine. Since, according to the Ukrainian military, there are few machines for mine, they have become a easy target for the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. In a conversation with the publication, one of the officers of the engineering-sapper unit of the 47th Mechanized Brigade of Defense Forces of Ukraine said that his unit received a German machine for Wisent demining.
This technique, as well as similar Soviet models, has successfully cleared some mine fields so that you can move forward in the Zaporozhye region. But the same officer stated that the use of this technique is already ineffective, because the Russians are actively striking. According to the Ukrainian military, when the Russians see a LEOPARD tank and special equipment for mine, they first destroy the equipment, because without it will stop forward.
Therefore, the sapper units of the Defense Forces of Ukraine try to exchanging mine fields manually. This is done by small groups of sappers, which in dusk or in the dark, sometimes crawling on the ground, mine. At the same time, Russian invaders can dump more mines from drones to those areas of the front that were cleaned by Ukrainian sappers. Also, when the soldiers of the Defense Forces of Ukraine capture the new position of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, it can also be replaced.
According to the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Alexei Reznikov, the Russians understand the importance of special equipment to mine at the front and try to destroy it. Therefore, Ukraine has asked the Allies to focus on the supply of such equipment in the first place. We remind that the newly created 22-ha ombre spent effectively covered the "hail" of the Russians under Bakhmut. The Ukrainian RSZV struck the forest belt in which aerotevists found the invaders.