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Author: Yi Pinwen’s team is a big buffalo, welcome to forward. With the new commander-in-chief General Sulovykin taking office, the Russian army’s front in Eastern Ukraine also seems to have stabilized. The Ukrainian army in the Kherson area tried to attack several times and was repelled by the Russian army, and even had a combat record of killing more than 100 people at one time. Their armoured fighting vehicles were also destroyed in combat. But at the same time, there seems to be no new news from the Russian Air Force and Navy. Only Russian fighter jets sporadically bombed tactical targets in the Kharkiv and Kyiv regions, and Air Force fighter jets recently shot down only Ukrainian MiG-29 fighter jets in the Nikolayev region. The Black Sea Fleet even closed the port anchorage of Sevastopol after a Ukrainian drone was shot down while spying in the area. Fearing new attacks, the Black Sea Fleet suspended some shipping operations. Even retaliatory airstrikes after the previous Crimean bridge attack stopped. The Russians were very disappointed. They found that the Russian army was attacking tactical targets and did not achieve strategic goals.
(Recently, Sulovykin did not continue large-scale bombing after the air strikes, and turned to land warfare as the main action.)
In contrast, the Russian Army has always had big operations. After the people in the Kherson area retreated across the river, the Russian army announced that an additional 1,000 troops would enter the city of Kherson for defensive operations. Previously, the local government in the Kherson area stated in the media that a frontal strengthening of the defense would help stop the Ukrainian army from attacking. Another front was in the Luhansk region, where the commander of the local police force told reporters that the Ukrainian army was attacking their lines, but had been pushed back and suffered heavy losses.
Judging from the above battle, the focus is still on the front-line area of Kherson. The Russian army did not adopt that American style of play: relying on Air Force fighters to continuously bomb the strategic targets of the Kyiv regime. They only lasted less than a week of air strikes, and most of them were tactical targets. The Kherson battlefield will still be dominated by land warfare in the future.
(Command and decision-making in war usually comes from the highest levels in Moscow. Contrary to what people think, politicians are the decision-makers of military operations, not front-line commanders.)
General Sulovykin and other commanders even implied that strategic operations of the campaign required higher-level decision-making. It has been made clear that the Kremlin politicians are the protagonists of this war, and even if the generals like or want to use the American indiscriminate bombing method, they cannot use it as they please. Because politicians are in command, although they are not necessarily experts in warfare.
So what kind of troops entered the Kherson area? Just a few days ago, President Putin announced that 300,000 new troops had been mobilized. Most of these people are mobilized soldiers, they belong to the troops of the National Guard.
(Russian National Guard. This includes the internal forces of the Federal Security Service, which will undertake the defense operations in the rear)
Fighting in Kherson will be the protection force as the main force, they are divided into front protection and rear protection. Rear protection is relatively simple, these are the tasks of the internal defense force or the police force: they defend against enemy harassment and sabotage, defend against guerrilla harassment operations, counter terrorism operations, and protect important infrastructure. These defense units (paramilitary units) are generally formed by the Ministry of the Interior, the Federal Security Service and the Border Guard. Those defense forces are affiliated with the above-mentioned units to form the National Guard, and they belong to the administrative jurisdiction of the above-mentioned units in wartime. They do not participate in front-line operations, and are exclusively responsible for public security warfare. Previously, four states in the East Ukraine region have joined Russia, so the National Guard can enter the East Ukraine region to fight without being restricted by previous laws and cannot go abroad to fight. This move greatly relieved the pressure of the front-line Russian regular army. There must be someone in the rear to defend, right? It is not serious business to take elite front-line troops to defend against guerrillas every day.
Front-line protection is more complicated, such as those vehicles and self-propelled anti-aircraft guns equipped with anti-aircraft missile systems by air defense units. They provide air defense cover directly to frontline troops. The Russians’ front-line defense is dynamic defense, which is a theory summed up by their many historical experiences. The Russians consider the operation of simply waiting for the enemy to fight on a defensive line to be a passive defense. Since such a line of defense will sooner or later be broken by the enemy, the Ukrainians will surely find a weakness in the line of defense and infiltrate it. For example, the previous Kharkov front was like this. So these regular army protective units provide a kind of “umbrella” for those attacking units. The Russians think: the best defense is still the offense! Those defensive units on the ground may be consumed by the enemy, but it doesn’t matter, because the Russian troops attacking the units may have completed their combat missions by then. For example, in Bonliman in recent days, a group of Russian army forwards entered the suburbs to fight, and they repelled the stronghold units of the Ukrainian army. This counter-attack team in Bonliman should be the offensive unit of the Russian army.
(In any era, the Russian army’s army is the protagonist. They don’t like American air battles, the firepower of the navy and air force is only to provide cover and strike to the army. The Russian likes to use the army to attack. Even when defending, he wants to Attack with army. Because attack is the best defense)
Therefore, we say that the battle of Kherson and the previous and future battles will still be dominated by the army. They are the core force, and there are three branches of this force: the Russian Army, the Airborne, and the Naval Infantry. In every war, Russia has a significant portion of its ground forces involved, whether in Ukraine or Syria. Previously in the Middle East, a large part of the ground force consisted of Syrian troops and Russian mercenaries.
The Russians have little interest in that NATO-style model of air strikes and special forces infiltration. They have no intention of replicating the Yugoslav air strikes and the Iraq war model, these people use air strikes as fire cover, and have no intention of developing into a large-scale air campaign (General Sulovkin is an exception, but he can only listen to order of Moscow). The real decisive force is the ground troops, who like to use the army to occupy the stronghold. Instead, the Americans directly used F15 and A10 to strafing and bombarded the stronghold, and finally waited for someone in the broken wall to come out with a white flag to surrender (assuming there were still people alive). Those navies and air forces provide cover for ground troops, usually launching cruise missiles from outside the defense zone or driving a plane to reconnaissance in the theater, or letting a few Su-25s run to the Ukrainians and throw bombs on them. Usually this is done in coordination with the Army. After those cover fires are over, the Army is sure to do something. So we have to pay attention. If a large number of navies and air forces are throwing bombs and missiles on a front in the near future, then the next step will be the army to fight. Because the Russians just like to use hoplites as the protagonists of war movies. Friends who like this article, please share and forward a lot. If you have any interesting insights, please leave a message below for discussion!