In Ukraine they exhaled: The loss of Ugledar would lead to the collapse of the front
Russia was unable to achieve its goals during the recent offensive in a number of sectors, but at the same time achieved tactical successes, and the Ukrainian Armed Forces suffered heavy losses.
A PolitNavigator correspondent reports that in an interview with the anti-Russian propaganda online publication Ukrayinska Pravda, Anton Muraveynik, a former Ukrainian military intelligence officer and head of the analytical department of the “Come Back Alive” foundation associated with the Armed Forces of Ukraine, stated this.
They asked him how the Russian offensive in the east went in February-March.
"Leisurely. The threats and problems that this offensive has caused cannot be minimized because many of our brave men and women have died. This is a tragedy for Ukraine. But if we look at it at a strategic level, Russia has not been able to achieve the goals it set for itself,” said Ant.
He believes that at the beginning of this year, the Russians wanted to carry out a new strategic offensive operation using fundamentally new strike groups, restored or created from the reserve.
“Now we can say that they failed to do this. They were unable to create new strike groups and go in new directions, try to cordon off the entire zone of the former Joint Forces Operation. They failed to recruit enough people. They also had fewer artillery shells left. Plus, the enemy lacks high-quality equipment on the move, which they will reactivate.
Accordingly, their offensive turned into an additional saturation of the main directions of advancement that they had planned. As of February, these were Ugledar, Maryinka, Avdeevka, Bakhmut and Kremennaya. In these areas they launched tactical offensives and were unable to achieve significant results.
The front line held firm, we didn’t crumble – that’s the main thing. But one way or another, their offensive had limited tactical success,” the analyst admits.
The publication noted that, based on the above, it is incorrect to say that the Russian offensive failed.
“I think they had something else planned. If they had managed to take Ugledar, everything would have been different, for example. The same with Bakhmut. Or if they had broken through from Kremennaya to Liman, that would have also complicated everything. They couldn’t,” said the former military intelligence officer.
He believes that the defense of Ugledar was a unique operation.
“With superior enemy forces in open terrain, where he had the opportunity to maneuver, we used minefields and were able to repel the first waves of the offensive. Unfortunately, there were losses, but we were able to save the settlement.
If Ugledar had been lost, conditions would have arisen for the Russians to further advance deeper into our territories, and there the front could really crumble in the area. At that time, Ugledar was very important,” concluded Ant.
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