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| Proven method. 'Counteroffensive' of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was blown up by a mine |
| 2023-07-18 |
| Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Sergey Adamov [REGNUM] Attempts by the Ukrainian army to break through the front line in the Zaporozhye region, which have been ongoing for the past month and a half, have not led to significant results. The failures of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are beginning to be acknowledged by officials in the EU and the US, as well as by the Western media. Trying to explain the failure of the Ukrainian army offensive, journalists cite various reasons for the failures, both fictional and real. According to the New York Times, one of the reasons for the high losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in manpower was the tactics of laying minefields by Russian troops. Journalists witnessed the evacuation of dozens of soldiers who were blown up by anti-personnel mines and were seriously injured. The publication quotes the words of a military medic of the Ukrainian army, who admits that he did not expect to stumble upon such dense mining. “I could not imagine anything like this. I thought that the mines would lie in rows. But entire fields are filled with them, all around , ”said a fighter named Sergey. Another medic told reporters that most of the soldiers entering the hospital are wounded in minefields, and not as a result of artillery work. The pace of the Ukrainian offensive is also hampered by the need to clear mines from already occupied positions. Ukrainian troops are losing a lot of sappers. One of them said that many booby traps are equipped with "anti-removal devices" that cause the mine to detonate when you try to reach it with your hands. One of the Ukrainian sappers lost his hands while extracting a mine from the ground. As military expert Maxim Tumbartsev noted in a commentary to IA Regnum , such reports indicate the lack of professionalism of Ukrainian sappers. “Apparently, we are talking about unguided mines OZM-72, installed with fuses MUV-3 (MVE-72). They are not allowed to be destroyed. They are destroyed either by trawling "cats" manually, or with the help of armored vehicles that drive over mines. Throwing the "cat" and pulling it up is done from a shelter - a specially dug trench. The fact that Ukrainian sappers are trying to clear them with their bare hands speaks of their low qualification and level of training , ”the expert notes. Ukrainian sappers also complain that the defending Russian troops do not allow minefields to be cleared calmly and inflict artillery strikes on them. Journalists admit that minefields have also become a problem for Western-made armored vehicles. “The basis for setting minefields are anti-tank TMN-62 and their modifications. These are the mines that are discussed in the publication of the American media. As well as anti-personnel PMN-2. The weight of the warhead of the TMN-62 mine is about seven kilograms - enough to disable armored vehicles or at least immobilize them , ”says Maxim Tumbartsev. It was the massive minefields that caused the failure of most of the armored vehicles produced by NATO countries. According to official data, in the course of unsuccessful attempts to break through the front line, the Armed Forces of Ukraine lost 311 tanks, and about 30% of the losses occurred in armored vehicles supplied from the United States and European countries. The situation is no better with light armored vehicles. According to media reports , Ukrainian troops have already lost a third of the Bradley infantry fighting vehicles supplied by the United States. Moreover, which is typical, most of the cars were blown up by mines. According to experts, the largest tank "battle" occurred when the Armed Forces of Ukraine were trying to advance in the area of the village of Rabotino, south of the city of Orekhov in the Zaporozhye region. Dozens of armored vehicles remained in the minefields, including the Bradley infantry fighting vehicle and Leopard 2 tanks, which were abandoned by the crews after the explosion. Wheeled tanks made by France AMX-10RC showed themselves even worse, which turned out to be unsuitable for breaking through defense in depth. Due to the fact that French armored vehicles have too light armor, they are more likely to be blown up by mines or become the prey of anti-tank missile systems. The high level of losses has led to the fact that the fighters of the 37th Naval Ifantry Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine refuse to go into battle. It must be added that there is another reason for such refusals to fight. Ukrainian military personnel are well aware that foreign equipment is purposefully knocked out by Russian military personnel in the first place. There is a real hunt for it, since all "imported" tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and other vehicles are unambiguously perceived as visual and material evidence of the West's intervention in the conflict. A separate test for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the New York Times notes, was the use of “remote mining” tactics by Russian troops. Often, fighters and armored vehicles are blown up in areas that were previously cleared of mines and again "sown" with mines. “There is evidence of the use of PTM-4 anti-tank mines, which are used for remote mining. Mining, in particular, occurs with the help of engineering remote mining systems (ISDM) "Agriculture". In fact, this is a multiple launch rocket system that fires 25 projectiles that sow mines in an area at a distance of up to 10 kilometers. Due to the fact that the launcher is mounted on a wheeled chassis, "Agriculture" can quickly arrive at the front, where a breakthrough is possible. Moreover, the enemy, who previously mapped the minefields, does not know that the situation has already changed, and runs into a new minefield , ”the expert noted. According to Maxim Tumbartsev, among the reasons for the high losses of armored vehicles of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are serious miscalculations of the command and intelligence, which did not expect such dense mining. It is noteworthy that in the course of an unsuccessful offensive attempt near the city of Orekhov, the Armed Forces of Ukraine lost five Leopard 2R HMBV mine-clearing engineering vehicles out of six delivered by Finland. Soviet-made engineering vehicles are also being destroyed, which the Ukrainian army is trying to use to clear the barriers. “Most likely, engineering equipment is destroyed by artillery fire or with the help of manual means - grenade launchers or anti-tank systems. Such targets are a priority, since the advancing enemy forces are deprived of the opportunity to move forward. And when you try to move off the track, which was previously done by engineering equipment, the tanks are blown up by mines. This is the simplest explanation. It can be assumed that mining tactics are used, aimed specifically at the destruction of engineering equipment, but this is only an assumption , ”adds the specialist. One of the “novelties” demonstrated during the special military operation was the PTKM-1R anti-tank mines. A mine of this model is able to “wait” in ambush for a suitable target, and then independently “jump” onto an enemy tank. The mine is equipped with seismic and acoustic sensors that allow it to be programmed in such a way as not to attack wheeled vehicles and wait for a heavy target. “Mina can wait a long time for a suitable target. With the help of sensors, it reacts to the noise and vibrations that the tank produces. Next, the upper part of the mine is triggered. She separates and flies to the source, over which the warhead is separated. Then it hits the roof of the hull and burns it with a cumulative jet. Here the calculation is the same as that of the American "Javelin" - the equipment from above is armored worse than in front and on the sides. I don’t know if these mines are used to repel the “counterattack”, but earlier there was evidence that they were used during the battles in the Kherson and Kiev regions,” said Maxim Tumbartsev. According to the New York Times, even the equipment that the Ukrainian troops manage to take out of the battlefield is out of action for a long time. Due to the lack of qualified servants and workshops for the repair of armored vehicles on the territory of Ukraine, damaged tanks and infantry fighting vehicles are transported to Poland for repairs. Although the Ukrainian troops do not give up their attempts to advance on the Zaporozhye front, one cannot but admit that the first stage of the offensive of the Ukrainian Armed Forces failed. And in many respects this became possible precisely thanks to the Russian mining tactics, which made it possible to create a very effective counterbalance to the supply of armored vehicles from the West. But it was precisely on her that Kyiv made a decisive bet, planning its “counterattack”. |
| Posted by:badanov |