According to recent media reports, the spokesman of the Ukrainian General Staff, issued a battle report, In the past 24 hours, the Ukrainian army has destroyed 30 Russian tanks and several armoured vehicles. The Russian Army 11th Independent Motor Infantry Regiment, has been forced to withdraw from the war zone due to heavy losses.
In this Russian-Ukrainian war, this is one of the biggest losses suffered by the Russian Army. According to the available data till March 15, within three weeks of the war, the 1st Guards Army had lost 131 tanks, 61 were killed, 209 were wounded, 44 were missing, and 96 were captured. Since then, no casualty figures have been released.
After nearly 4 months of observation, the United States stated that it will use the Russian-Ukrainian war to exhaust the backbone of the Russian army’s ground forces, Russia will no longer have the ability to launch attacks on neighboring countries for the next ten years.
The main combat plan of the Ukrainian army is to use flexible defense and in favorable terrain to kill the effective force of the Russian army as much as possible. Resilient defense, area defense, and operational-level maneuver defense are not mutually exclusive. The Ukrainian army mainly gained the bonus points in the Donbas region: Liman, Popasna, Severo-Donetsk, Lichansiysk, Slavyansk, Marinka, Kramatorsk, Red Army City and Konstantinov. A series of fortified cities had consumed the living strength of the Russian army.
The Russian army has now captured 2 of the 9 major fortified areas and is attacking the third. The Ukrainian army is going to be at a loss on the Donbas battlefield. No matter how much the Ukrainian army loses, it has already delivered much damage to the Russian army. Because the entire Russian army cannot participate in the war, and the Russian army participants in the war are officers, non-commissioned officers and contract soldiers, professional soldiers, these are the essence of the Russian army.
Once these officers, non-commissioned officers and contract soldiers have suffered heavy losses, it will not take a few years for these senior military personnel to replenish. The Russian army has reserves of tens of thousands of tanks and armored vehicles, and reserves of tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of artillery shells. However, the Russian army does not have many qualified officers and non-commissioned officers.
Therefore, the Ukrainian army is so keen to fight street battles in Severo Donetsk to consume the Russian army’s living strength. For the Ukrainian army, the loss of the 111th Brigade of Homeland Defense composed of mobilized troops is nothing, but if it can consume thousands of Russian officers and non-commissioned officers here, it is very cost-effective for the Ukrainian army.
The tactics of the Ukrainian army are very simple, they are using the fortified areas one by one to block the Russian army and let the Russian army slowly advance and attack slowly. Then, the UAVs of the Ukrainian army can have time to search for the targets of the Russian army, so that the artillery of the Ukrainian army can put into use its precision strike capability, and attack and consume the vital force of the Russian army.
Therefore, each defense of the Ukrainian army has a depth of several kilometers and consists of two positions, three continuous trench lines should be built on each position, and a perfect beveled position should be constructed to connect the joints of the defense lines.
If the Ukrainian army can consume a group of Russian officers and non-commissioned officers in every fortified fortified area, as well as contract soldiers. Then, in the end, even if the Russian army captures all the Donbas region, the backbone of the Russian army will be ultimately broken. Even if the Russian army has to invest 200,000 conscripts, it cannot conduct effective combat strikes. After all, it lacks the command and leadership of officers, non-commissioned officers and contract soldiers.
Now the Russian and Ukrainian forces are in the battle of Severo Donetsk for the past 40 days, and it is not over yet. If the battle will continue to go at this speed, then the Russian army will take the remaining 6 fortress areas at least until the end of the year.
For the Russian army, it is basically impossible to divide and encircle in order to maneuver and intersperse in the deep defense area of the Ukrainian army in Donbas. Before the Russian army could not contain the Ukrainian army’s backup force and the supply of NATO weapons. The goal of the Russian army in the Donbas region was to concentrate its forces on the front and attack several narrow directions, in order to gradually shake the Ukrainian army through short assaults.
The Russian army must cut off several major supply lines by concentrating its forces and occupy key supply points to accelerate the collapse of the Ukrainian army. As long as it can annihilate more than a dozen elite brigades of the Ukrainian army in the Donbas region, Russia has won a decisive victory. Therefore, Ukrainian Defense Minister Letennikov admitted that 100 to 200 Ukrainian soldiers are killed on the Eastern Ukrainian front every day, and the firepower of the Russian army in some warring areas has even reached ten times that of the Ukrainian army.