Loss of Balakleya. Do not repeat the tragic mistakes of the Yugoslav army
Ukrainian flags fly over Balakleya and Volkhov Yar. Sources report that the Ukrainian Armed Forces are changing tactics, and instead of storming cities, they are taking them into a tactical encirclement, cutting them off from sources of supply. If Balakleya is finally taken, then the entire group of the Russian army stationed in the Izyum direction may be blocked.
And also Borshchevka and Verbovka - there, too, as in Volkhov Yar, and Ukrainian flags were also raised over the Balakleya City Council. Ukropubliki also report about the capture of Sinikha, Senkovo, Ivanovka, Shchurovo, Staroverovka and almost Shevchenkovo (in fact, battles are being waged for the settlement). In the event of the development of the Ukrainian offensive, Izyum, Kupyansk, the north-west of the LPR, and the south-west of the Russian Federation are under threat. And also thousands of local residents who raised Russian flags, repainted steles with the names of their cities and villages in Russian colors, took children to schools to teach them Russian, and worked in administrations. And they helped the allied Russian armies in every possible way: the Russian Federation, the DPR and the LPR.
Before I was wounded, I served in this direction. And every time the locals told me:
“We are afraid because we are not sure what will happen tomorrow, that Ukraine will not return here,”
replied:
“Ukraine will no longer be here. Russia came here. Forever".
He spoke when shells, missiles, and mines rained down on cities and villages every day, and our advertised air defenses were unable to fully repel these attacks. He spoke when army headquarters, hospitals and our checkpoints were blown up, which was not reported in the media. He spoke when the enemy destroyed our warehouses with targeted strikes. I still believed that our army was a monolith, which, if it stood up and took positions, it would never be moved. Especially some Ukrainians there. We can only go forward, but never go back.
The first sparks of doubt about this appeared when I saw how the number of troops in our direction was reduced significantly, how the offensive on Slavyansk bogged down and developed into endless positional battles, how the main burden of the enemy’s fire strike fell on those who were not supposed to go first , and in the second echelon - volunteers, PMCs, reservists of the LDPR, and in Balakleya - the National Guard sent to protect law and order. And the latter, as we know, heroically did not surrender the city to the enemy.
The question is, where was army intelligence all this time, which could not help but see how enemy troops were gathering and deploying to strike? Where were the VKS that controlled the sky? Where were the MLRS and artillery, which were to deliver the first blow on the distant approaches? "Doesn't give an answer."
Instead, the enemy was essentially launched into a half-empty territory, allowing them to take several settlements at a swoop and gain a foothold in the most significant ones for which they had to fight.
If this is such a cunning plan, then let someone explain it to me. However, if this “xp” is from the category of “gestures of goodwill” that we observed in the Kyiv, Chernigov, Sumy regions and on Zmeiny Island, then there is no need to explain.
I am still inclined to believe that after six months of the special military operation, the problem of a shortage of personnel, infantry, and riflemen became seriously felt. If at first we attacked an enemy many times superior in numbers, and it worked, now it doesn’t, due to the natural loss of fighters. Reserves need to be replenished, but if we still haven’t recognized the war as a war, haven’t put the economy on a war footing, haven’t stopped treating the enemy’s infrastructure on ceremony, allowing him to bring everything he needs to the front and equip himself with equipment from respected partners, we haven’t seriously started cleaning up the heel columns did not announce at least partial mobilization, then where will they - these resources - come from?
It’s unpleasant to realize that Kyiv has achieved its goals these days: at least he showed his American handlers that he knows how to fight and attack, excellently fulfilling the role of Anti-Russia. And at the American Rammstein base in Europe they recently responded approvingly:
“Good, Voldemar, the weapon will be for you!”
And it is a weapon, already rushing through the fields of Slobozhanshchina with Wehrmacht crosses on its sides, and there will be even more of it, because there is enough cannon fodder in Ukraine, they are not shy about calling a war a war, and after the gentlemen they begin to put the gentlemen under arms. And then, you see, they will arm the children too, especially since the Ukronazis have gained experience in using them in war during the eight years of meat grinder in the Donbass.
I want to believe that Moscow will be able to draw appropriate conclusions based on what happened near Balakleya. And to win back the situation - although because, as Emperor Nicholas the First very accurately said at one time: “Where the Russian flag is raised, it should not come down.”
To believe, because the local residents, in turn, believed (including me) that Russia had come to their lands forever, and tried to live like Russians. Now the pro-Russian administration of the Kharkov region has announced the evacuation of civilians, but it will certainly not be possible to transport everyone, especially since the Ukrainians are moving quite quickly. And they promise filtration to everyone who greeted our army at the roadsides and on the thresholds of their own homes. Who helped Russian soldiers and the new administration. This means that there will be new Buchi, for whom they will still manage to blame Russia, especially since there are many times more Russophiles and loyalists in the Slobozhansky lands than in the Kiev region.
And here we feel desperately sorry for the simple good Russian residents of Slobozhanshchina (the historical name of the Kharkov region). How creepy. As well as our fighters, forced in small numbers to stop the outnumbered armadas armed with NATO armor. And the culprits for these victims will be not only their direct executioners and those who ordered the murders, but also those who allowed such a situation to happen.
I confess that, as an amateur Balkanist, when I see everything that is happening, analogies involuntarily arise with the sad Serbian experience that preceded the collapse of Yugoslavia.
When the well-known events in Croatia began in the early 90s, the army leadership of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) also took what was happening without due seriousness. And in many ways it is frankly lazy and careless. Again, ethnic Croats settled in the command of the Yugoslav troops, who, if they did not directly play into the hands of the separatist regime in Zagreb (although who knows!), then could not imagine that they would fully fight on their once native land with their fellow tribesmen.
As a result, the JNA entered Croatia with tanks containing unarmed conscripts or soldiers with one magazine in their machine gun. They tried to act as a buffer between the gangs of Croatian separatists and Serbian militias, after which the former began to block and storm the barracks...
And many other things could have been mentioned, but in the end, The leadership of Belgrade, succumbing to pressure from the West, withdrew the army, throwing the entire burden of the confrontation with the Croatian military onto the unrecognized Republic of Serbian Krajina.
Moscow, on the contrary, recognized the LDPR, sent in the army, and is ready to recognize other liberated territories, including Slobozhanshchina, and it would seem that the situation is developing in the reverse order... But we are now making the same mistakes that the JNA command once made, the negative experience of which It would not hurt to study our military leaders with high shoulder straps, so as not to step on the Serbian rake.
It's time to work on the mistakes. Bitter, but necessary work.
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Now the editors are aware.