Ukrainian general explains why front is collapsing
A Ukrainian general has named three reasons for a series of battlefield setbacks recently suffered by Kiev’s troops in the conflict with Russia.
Maj. Gen. Dmitry Marchenko, a career Air Assault Forces officer currently involved in the defense of the city of Nikolayev, told a Ukrainian online news commentary show on Monday that a shortage of munitions, battle fatigue, and poor quality of command and control were behind the failures.
In the past several months, Russian forces have liberated numerous settlements in the Donetsk People’s Republic that had previously been under Ukrainian control. The city of Ugledar, formerly a key point in Ukraine’s defense line in the east, was fully captured earlier this month.
Maj. Gen. Dmitry Marchenko, a career Air Assault Forces officer currently involved in the defense of the city of Nikolayev, told a Ukrainian online news commentary show on Monday of three key factors behind the setbacks. Those are a shortage of munitions, battle fatigue, and poor quality of command and control.
“The third thing is the disbalance of command. What is happening now, let me just say that this surely should not be happening,” Marchenko said.
He cited the battle for Ugledar as an example of how poor leadership resulted in a severe setback. The Ukrainian 72nd Mechanized Brigade that was defending the city had its commander replaced in late September right before it was pulled back to be replaced by another unit. Marchenko believes that whoever made that decision undermined the 72nd’s combat capability.
“We all know this, and I will not reveal any military secret if I say that our front is collapsing,” Marchenko said of the overall situation. Units get “no reinforcement, and people are very-very-very tired and cannot hold the line,” he added.
Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky earlier this month presented his so-called ‘victory plan’ in the conflict. He requested an immediate invitation for Ukraine to join NATO, permission to strike targets deep inside Russia with Western long-range weapons, deployment of Western “conventional deterrence forces” on Ukrainian soil, and other measures.
However, the proposal elicited little enthusiasm in the West, Polish Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin last week accused Kiev of acting irrationally, switching between requesting talks through intermediaries and publicly declaring that no negotiations would be conducted. Moscow believes that the conflict is a US-led proxy war against Russia, which the West intends to wage “to the last Ukrainian.”
