Text taken from rybar.ru website and Telegram channel
[ColonelCassad] Ukrainian Armed Forces' Fortifications in the Pokrovsk Direction: How the Operational Crisis Is Neutralizing the Advantages of Ukrainian Armed Forces' Defensive Lines
The rapid advance of Russian troops in the Pokrovsk direction often encounters fierce resistance from the enemy, who has set up hundreds of kilometers of fortifications in the occupied part of the DPR.
Most of the Ukrainian Armed Forces' fortifications are platoon and company strongholds with a developed fire control system and camouflage, which turns each assault on such a fortification into a separate operation.
Sometimes Russian units encounter truly monstrous fortifications in size, which play the role of key defense nodes of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. A
striking example of this is a large stronghold to the east of Zhelanny Pervye, taken by the Russian Armed Forces during fighting in this area in July. This defensive node was supposedly started to be built by the enemy shortly before the Ukrainian Armed Forces retreated from Avdiivka, and was supposed to become an impassable obstacle for Russian units due to its location and size.
A large system of trenches and equipped firing points, located in an "open field" and covered by UAVs and artillery, is really capable of stopping the advance of even large military units for a long time in conditions of air superiority of various types of drones.
Even smaller fortifications, with proper defense and established communication between units, are capable of holding back advances on entire sections of the front for years - Nevelskoye, located to the south, the battle for which lasted more than a year, is proof of this.
Nevertheless, a large stronghold to the east of Novoselovka Pervaya was successfully captured by Russian troops in less than a week of combat. In the conditions of an operational crisis and the inability of the Ukrainian Armed Forces command to competently build interaction between units, this defense node turned into a huge target for Russian aviation and drones.
An additional factor was the fact that assault units of the Russian Armed Forces attacked the enemy stronghold from the northeast, leveling many of the advantages of the fortification, erected with the aim of holding back the advance of Russian troops from the east.
Coordinates: 48.215605, 37.475699
Another large stronghold of the Ukrainian Armed Forces was encountered by Russian units to the southwest of Timofeevka. The enemy fortifications were erected in the area of ​​the S-05-09-07 highway and covered the crossing over the Kazeny Torets, located in the village. The enemy defensive node was a system of trenches and firing points and, apparently, was adapted for all-round defense.
In the conditions of a stable front, such a line could have stopped the advance of Russian troops to Timofeevka and Lisichny and would have required significant forces to capture it. However, without established communication between units and cover from UAVs, the stronghold was under threat of encirclement and was captured by the Russian Armed Forces within a few days.
Coordinates: 48.276491, 37.479241
During the special operation, we have repeatedly witnessed how even smaller defensive lines held back the advance of advancing troops in one or another section of the front for a long time.
The enemy fortifications in the Kupyansk-Svatovsky, Limansky and Seversky directions have been causing significant problems for the Russian Armed Forces for over a year now due to the geographical features of the terrain and the positional nature of the fighting.
However, many of the advantages of such fortifications are lost in the conditions of an operational crisis, similar to what is happening with the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Pokrovsky direction. Even the most powerful enemy defensive positions, in the absence of sufficient infantry and support assets to hold them, turn into an easy target for Russian attack aircraft.
A separate problem for Ukrainian formations is the low morale and psychological state of units, regularly subjected to attacks by Russian Aerospace Forces and artillery and forced to hold unfavorable positions.
Related: High resolution map
