Battalion commander of the Russian Legion: “To defeat Ukraine, we need an army of a million soldiers”
Will the intensity of fighting in the Northern Military District zone decrease with the onset of cold weather? How much does the number of Ukrainian Armed Forces militants exceed the number of Russian army fighters opposing them? Who, besides the Ukrainians, is opposing us on the fronts?
The commander of the BARS-13 “Russian Legion” battalion told PolitNavigator about this and much more. Sergey "Fomich" Fomchenkov.
Now there is a lot of talk about the fact that the situation that has developed near Kremennaya and especially Svatovo is extremely difficult. Is it so? What is really happening on this sector of the front?
– Yes, indeed, the situation there is difficult, because this is one of the main directions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ offensive. After they managed to knock out our units from Izyum and Kupyansk, they hoped to capture the entire territory of the Luhansk region liberated by us, and in the euphoria after the success near Kharkov, this seemed to them a simple matter. By today, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have accumulated enormous forces in this direction, they still exceed our capabilities, in any case, when they came at us from the direction of Kupyansk and Izyum, staging a massacre near Liman, they definitely surpassed us in the number of infantry, tanks and artillery . Now the situation is improving.
What was the enemy's superiority during the battles for the Liman?
- Ten times. This is, of course, a conditional value, but as close as possible to the truth. Now, I repeat, the situation has improved, but still the ratio of two to three times remains in their favor. At the same time, of course, it is quite difficult to give an accurate assessment of the qualitative component of the enemy troops. Therefore, yes, the situation is not simple, especially since the Ukrainian Armed Forces can concentrate up to three to four thousand people in the attack directions. We won’t be able to keep three or four thousand people in the direction of the attack; it would be good if there were three hundred there.
Now there is a lot of talk about freezing the situation at the fronts, which is supposedly beneficial to both sides. Is it so? Or should we expect a resumption of the hot phase of hostilities in the near future?
If we are talking about freezing the situation in general, then this is just some kind of cheap conspiracy theory; only people who do not understand the realities of the modern world or the peculiarities of the current war can talk about this. Now all sides are fighting to the death, to the last soldier. We are now experiencing a civil war combined with a world war. It can be assumed that there is a part of the elite left that wants to return to the previously achieved (before the SVO - ed.) status quo, but they do not play any role now, in general, the issue of Russia’s survival is now relevant.
Well, they mostly talk about seasonal freezing associated with the climatic characteristics of the front-line regions.
This will depend on the condition of the troops. No one will deliberately stop attacks and advances, but if the weather does not allow a full-fledged offensive, then this will happen by itself. Well, eighty years ago the climate was not an obstacle to an offensive in these same territories, so today I don’t see any special obstacles to this.
A similar situation may arise due to other circumstances: if the parties feel that their strength - physical, technical - has been exhausted. Because the conflict began eight months ago. And, now, if this happens, then, by the tacit consent of both sides, the conflict will move into the stage of a positional war. To accumulate strength. But the point here is not at all about the season; the season is only an additional factor that can have an impact. That is, there is no strength, and then the fuel freezes... There may be exhaustion, but we must not forget that Europe is supplying the opposite side with weapons, a new wave of mobilization has been announced, plus Polish regular troops are now actually participating on its side, and Romanian ones too. We are also mobilizing.
crests have huge ambitions, and we have a need to regain what we have lost. Therefore, I do not rule out that there will be some serious fighting in the winter, because our side needs initiative, victory, and the Ukrainians need to somehow justify the existence of their own state in this world, which is becoming more and more meaningless.
Who is opposing the “Russian Legion”? How can we assess the enemy’s combat potential today and how real a threat he poses to our volunteers?
The opposition is, firstly, the personnel units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, together with the National Battalions and the Defense Forces, the latter making up a large percentage of those who, in general, are fighting against us. The latter, of course, cannot be compared with our mobilized ones, because our fighters are people with military specialties, drafted into personnel units. And their defensive defense is more similar to the German Volkssturm, their weapons and functions are different. But they create certain obstacles for us, because they are put in trenches, or used as meat for the offensive, we have to waste ammunition on them, and our people die in a collision with them.
Another important point is that in addition to the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the defense forces, we are also opposed by mercenaries from the West (EU and USA - ed.) and Latin America, and in fact - personnel units of NATO countries - Poland and Romania. Lately they have been talking about this more and more, but it became clear to us even when we stood on Bogorodichny (in the Kharkov region). During the last battle there, when we were leaving the encirclement, the speech that was heard was clearly not Ukrainian or Western Ukrainian, but Polish and Romanian. And these, of course, are not mercenaries, but personnel units. Plus, according to the radio intercepts we made when we were stationed in Drobyshevo, these were Polish special operations forces.
For many, the situation that occurred in the Izyum direction was, at least in many respects, predictable, but, despite the alarming signals, it came as a shock. Has Russia learned from it, and is it better prepared for a possible enemy offensive than it was then?
In any case, lessons were learned from what happened. Although everyone seemed to be in some kind of obsession for a long time, clearly seeing that our troops in the Izyum direction were spread out like porridge on a plate, and if the Ukrainian Armed Forces launched an offensive, it would be essentially impossible to hold out. But they did nothing. And so the crests made a breakthrough, threw all the forces they had, but we didn’t have enough of them... On our defense line there were sometimes twenty people per kilometer of front! I repeat, lessons have undoubtedly been learned, but to what extent is not yet clear. But, for example, they already understand that there should be no holes in the defense, they are trying to prevent them, monitor the movements of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the possible directions of their attacks, and create a second line of defense. It is clear that we are still learning how to fight, but the situation now is much better than it was when the failure at Izyum happened.
One of the reasons for leaving the Kharkov, and previously the Kyiv, Chernigov and Sumy regions is called the insufficient number of personnel of the Russian army. If this is so, does the partial mobilization carried out in Russia solve this problem? What, ideally, should be the size of the Russian army in order to solve all the tasks of the Northern Military District?
Yes, absolutely right, there was not enough personnel. Moreover, both at the beginning of the Northern Military District and now. My opinion is that instead of a partial one, it is necessary to declare a general mobilization in order to put a million people under arms at once, otherwise these will again be half measures. Otherwise, we will partially close some holes, Ukraine will announce a new wave of mobilization, they will call for help from more Poles, Romanians and someone else, perhaps Czechs and Hungarians, and will build up their forces. On the contrary, we need to build up our striking fist, create a large group and slam Ukraine with one blow. And this should have been done much earlier, but initially they hoped that they would be able to win with small forces. Did not work out.
Therefore, I repeat, I would not build up the army little by little, but would immediately create a large, powerful group, but the question, of course, largely depends on the material component, among other things. Everyone needs weapons, clothing allowances, military equipment... And this is a definite problem.
In this regard, I just wanted to ask: the “Russian Legion,” like other units, regularly have to turn to volunteers, philanthropists and just kind people for help regarding equipping a combat unit. Why ? If there are problems with supply, then under what conditions is it possible to solve them in the foreseeable future?
In fact, such a situation, when what the army lacks is filled by volunteers, has existed at all times. This was three hundred, and two hundred, and a hundred years ago. It’s a normal story when citizens of their country help their native army in wartime. Well, staffing levels – yes, this is a big problem. How to solve it? The prestige of the army should be raised to a high level, as it was in the Soviet Union; serving in the army was considered honorable, not only as an officer, but also simply to undergo military service. And this is normal, because defending your country is always an honor.
And, of course, it is necessary to rebuild the economy to suit the needs of the army?
This is already an obvious thing, which is realized at the state level, voiced by the president and prime minister, and the process of transferring the economy to a war footing has been launched. Everyone understands this. Another thing is that I wish this had happened much earlier. And I'm not alone. But it’s good that this happened at least now.
What exactly does BARS-13 “Russian Legion” need now to successfully complete its combat missions?
In thermal imagers. In transport - many cars break down, “perish” under fragments, we need both freight transport and passenger cars of all types: from “loaves” to SUVs.
Dear readers, if you want to make your contribution to helping the fighting battalion BARS-13 “Russian Legion”, then you can do this using the details:
Sberbank – 4817 7602 2659 7155
Tinkoff – 5536 9140 8823 8856
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