This was not in the Ministry of Defense reports: Sladkov spoke about the surrender of Liman
The spirit of the defenders of Krasny Liman allowed them to defend the city to the last, but an irresponsible approach to the construction of defensive infrastructure was allowed. In addition, the garrison found itself practically without communication and interaction with other units.
Russian military correspondent Alexander Sladkov, who visited the positions of the Liman defenders several hours before the retreat from the city, stated this in his video blog, the PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“We first came to the temporary deployment point of the 208th BARS battalion, a detachment of volunteers. There was a huge crater there. This is not a Hymers, this is not a Hurricane, this is not a Smerch, this is an aircraft bomb. And the guys said that Ukrainian aviation operated along the Liman. This means it hasn’t “died” yet. Where is our air defense, that’s the question...
The air defense somehow sent these planes to Liman. Bombs. Bomb trace. Well, at least, probably FAB-500. It turns out that the guys were redeployed, they were hit, they seemed to have no losses...
Then we went to the commandant regiment of the DPR... One of the officers took me aside and said: “The situation is very bad. We have no contact with the 208th battalion; the command post of the Russian Ministry of Defense formation has disappeared somewhere. No communication, no interaction».
Aviation, the pilots called the commandant’s regiment on the phone and said: “Guys, where to hit?”
They say: "But we don’t know how to formulate the goals of direction" There is no “OBUshnik” there; there is no air traffic control officer or spotter either,” Sladkov recounted.
In his opinion, the only positive aspect of the retreat from Liman is the release of the fighters from encirclement.
“I am very glad that we have retained those soldiers and officers who conscientiously performed their duty to the last. And we saved them for future actions, we didn’t let them trap us,” said Sladkov.
He added that literally on the eve of the surrender of Liman, a referendum on joining Russia was held in the city - a representative of the top leadership of the DPR came. However, the authorities did not bother to build fortifications, although the city had been under siege since the beginning of September.
“Even the referendum was completely successful, back in Liman. There Denis Pushilin's representative came, the entire system of participation in the referendum of the Donetsk corps was organized there. This is Donetsk territory in general, it is not Lugansk or Kharkov. Everyone voted normally, the markets were open there, the shops were open there. Well, couldn’t we have dug something there and brought in equipment? There were also tractors, bulldozers, excavators, graders. Drive in military engineering equipment, dig communication passages, create strongholds, outside the populated area, in good faith. Inside the settlement - yes, they could have repaired it later. And now - that’s it, the flag hangs “yellow-black,” stated the military correspondent.
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