Military expert explained the new tactics of our troops in Mariupol
Vladimir Putin ordered to cancel the assault on Azovstal – industrial zones in Mariupol, where the Ukrainian military, fighters of nationalist battalions and foreign mercenaries settled in the city. Instead of a frontal attack, there will be blocking of the territory. This decision may seem unexpected against the background of the statements of our military that the enemy can be finished within 3-4 days, and even more so against the background of the statement of Ramzan Kadyrov, who promised that already on April 21 Azovstal will be taken. Contacted military experts explained the change in plans and how the blockade could be implemented.
Photo: AP
The President, accepting the report of Sergei Shoigu, said that he considered the storming of the industrial zone “unreasonable”. Since Mariupol has already been liberated, it makes no sense from a military point of view to crush the last local center of resistance.
As Putin noted: “This is the case when we should think – we should always do it – on the preservation of the life and health of our soldiers and officers. No need to climb into these catacombs and crawl underground through industrial facilities.
Instead, there will be perimeter blocking. “Lock off this industrial area so that a fly cannot fly through. Suggest once again to everyone who has not yet laid down their arms to do this,” the President ordered. around the inmates of “Azovstal” – to give an opportunity to come out with weapons after negotiations right in the city of representatives of Russia and Ukraine. Only two options are left: death or captivity.
In principle, this was also understood by Zelensky, who said that the bill for the group is not just for days, but, possibly, for hours, and that Ukraine has no way to unblock them with military force. Calm for those sitting in the basements of “Azovstal” may be worse than the assault.
– The decision to abandon the frontal assault is the right and expedient decision from all points of view, – the editor-in-chief of the National Defense magazine believes. Igor Korotchenko. – Because we are minimizing losses among Russian servicemen and servicemen of the LPR and DPR. Conduct military operations in underground communications – is to put them at risk. And also expose civilians, possibly held hostage by Ukrainian nationalist battalions, to the risk of accidental death. Therefore, the blockade of the perimeter – this is an effective solution.
Some time will pass, water and food supplies will run out. There will be a very simple choice – life or death. For us, the main – effective perimeter control. This is very easy to do.
There are radar stations for surface control. These are miniature radars designed to detect the movement of any groups of people. There is a radar “Credo-1E”. This is a unified radar for reconnaissance and detection of moving ground targets. With the help of such radars, which will be installed along the perimeter, covering the entire zone, any single people, groups of people, – all of which will be effectively detected. In this way, it will be possible to ensure reliable control over the Azovstal perimeter.
Obviously, along the perimeter there should be combat units, artillerymen, mortars, motorized riflemen, who, firstly, if there are those who wish to surrender, will provide reception, filtering, escort of prisoners, and, secondly, if attempts are made to break through with combat from the territory of “Azovstal”, they will use the means of destruction of the enemy.
In the view of the layman, the control of the perimeter – this is a fence with barbed wire and towers with machine guns. However, in reality the picture is quite different. Already now on the territory of “Azovstal” we will witness the so-called “tunnel war”.
“Our troops control the surface and are currently on missions to find exits to the top that may not have been detected by aerial reconnaissance. Because the exits to the surface can be some places inside the workshops, technical rooms, – explains the leading Russian military expert Alexei Leonkov. – The main goal now – inspection of such premises and blockage of these exits. In order to leave only a few exits, and preferably one, through which these inmates can leave the cellars of Azovstal.
At the same time, time works for us. Undermining such exits, passages, galleries – it leads to very hard times for inmates.
This tactic is not new. Tunnel wars can be fought with or without attack, but practice shows that if no one can unblock the enemy and hit you in the back, as in this case, then you just methodically work to find exits, ventilation and fill them up. You create unbearable conditions for those who sit underground.
If the ventilation system is disturbed, then the increase in internal temperature and stale air contribute to the fact that the first thing that ends – This is water. Food spoils, humidity rises, the oxygen content in the air decreases. So, you need to look for some opportunities to get to the surface.
The second factor that affects the duration of sitting underground is the waste of life and death among the inmates – You can't bury corpses in concrete. And the decomposition of corpses is already a disaster with unsanitary conditions. Unsanitary – the main ally of those who sit on the surface.
Photo: AP
– You can encourage inmates to leave the catacombs with some powerful ammunition. But even just blowing up galleries, passages, manholes – they also have a negative impact on their psyche. Because they will understand that they have fewer opportunities to reach the surface. We will see this from those alarmist statements that will now begin around this “sitting”.
I really hope that ours will use small robotic complexes to inspect the galleries. They will be able to examine, for example, ventilation systems into which a person will not climb. The robot will be able to detect that the ventilation system leads, let's say, to the gallery, and there is an ammunition depot. And then – aviation is called, coordinates and thickness of the overlap are given, aviation picks up ammunition and hammers.
– There may be unaccounted exits to the surface, through which the inmates will try to break through. But the fact is that the last days, when the territory was cleared, they could come to the surface in small groups. Which suggests that the possibilities for a large group to exit are limited.
Even those breakthroughs that were made by Azovstal – they were preparing for them. That is, for some time we accumulated forces on the surface, using the premises of the workshops. Now, when the surface is under our control, there is no such possibility of accumulation. The surface must be controlled by both foot patrols with armored support and fixed checkpoints. There should also be reserve forces – rapid reaction forces, which should quickly arrive at the place of a possible breakthrough.
– We do not have information about how much food, air and water they have. It is known that the total number of inmates is from one and a half to two thousand. Reserves would be known – one could imagine how long they could last. And in order not to wait for them to quickly make a decision, it is necessary, of course, to motivate them to leave the dungeons, as I already said. This tactic is used in all tunnel wars.
