1242… 1380… 1612… 1709… 1812… 1941… and 2014. All those who march on Russia shall be put to death…
_______________________________
Interfax quoted A V Zakharchenko, the Chairman of the DNR Government, as saying, “Fighting continues; we’re trying to link up with the LNR, to combine our forces”. On Русской весне (Russian Spring), Shurigin offered the following commentary on the military situation opened by the recent fighting in the Donbass, “According to the most comprehensive estimates, the bandits lost at least 350 killed and 900 wounded, and lost 40 tanks, 80 AFVs/MICVs and 100 guns and mortars. During the ten days of fighting, VSN casualties amounted to 150 killed and 400 wounded, losing 10 tanks and 30 artillery pieces and mortars”.
The junta command had to pull strategic reserves from the Slavyansk, Artyomovsk, and Lisichansk to prevent a breach in their lines and to keep the Debaltsevo pocket from being cut off. However, they held the front; the reserves didn’t enter action, allowing the junta the option to open its own offensive operations. In turn, the VSN has to keep a reserve in case of a junta counterattack, it can only support the advance of its forward elements with artillery, which reduces the rate of advance and doesn’t allow them to enlarge tactical successes effectively. The VSN launched its offensive after junta shelling killed 13 civilians at a bus stop in Donetsk. Today, in Gorlovka, Zakharchenko again confirmed that the main objective of the offensive was to make further junta shelling of major Donbass cities impossible.
Its initial defeats generated a defeatist mood in the junta forces. Andrei Beletsky, the commander of the Azov Battalion said, “We weren’t ready for the current confrontation. The generals and politicians have already lost their war”. Now, the fiercest fighting is near Debaltsevo, where the junta forces are in a virtual pocket. However, despite this, they still receive reinforcements. Apparently, in connection with events on the afternoon of 26 January, “Prime Minister” A P Yatsenyuk said that the junta introduced a high alert throughout the country and a state of emergency in Novorossiya. Rostislav Ishchenko, President of the Centre of Systems Analysis and Forecasting, commenting on Свободной прессе (Free Press), said, “Yatsenyuk’s decision changes nothing. As Poroshenko refuses to impose martial law, Yatsenyuk, as the head of civil defence, can impose a state of emergency. He did that, but it’s really nothing but a symbolic gesture. In practise, it added nothing new to what we see in the Ukraine”.
Aleksandr Perendzhiev, political scientist and military expert, observed, “Commanders and troops of the VSN are united in the belief that it’s necessary to liberate all the DNR and LNR. In the meantime, their immediate task is to push the front away from Donetsk, to safeguard the city from further junta shelling. Again, as it was at the end of August last year, the most pressing situation is the liberation of Mariupol. I think that the VSN should take it, as it’d be a turning point in the liberation of the LNR and DNR national territory. In addition, it’d immediately increase the geopolitical weight of Novorossiya. Mariupol as a port would it give it a certain economic self-sufficiency.
The Свободной прессе presenter asked Perendzhiev, “How is the fighting going, and how can we judge the direction of the VSN offensive, where is it going next?” Perendzhiev replied, “With regard to the number of weapons, it’s difficult to say who has more of them now. However, clearly, the VSN is superior to the enemy in terms of morale. Almost all troops are motivated to continue the war until victory. Most junta troops don’t want to fight. They only think about how they can get out of the war alive. Of course, the junta’s ‘volunteer’ battalions also have high motivation, but they mostly show their ‘heroism’ against civilians. In combat conditions, they don’t ‘stand up and fight’. In addition, the decomposition of the junta continues. The ground beneath their feet is increasingly shaky. The fact that the ‘volunteer battalions’ are refusing to go to the most critical sections of the front illustrates this. Apparently, they hold back so that they can protect their paymasters in the case of societal collapse or so that they could bring their paymasters to power. I think that the anniversary of the Maidan victory should bring in some action… it’s possible that there may even be another coup. After all, many Ukrainian political elements believe that they didn’t get what they deserved after Yanukovich’s overthrow. The Right Sector may well say that the junta robbed it of victory. In any case, political instability in Kiev will lead to further demoralisation in the junta forces. Until then, probably, the VSN wouldn’t initiate a large-scale offensive, but will continue to besiege the enemy in local operations”.
The presenter broke in, “Zakharchenko said that the VSN hadn’t shelled Mariupol and they don’t intend to do that. Is it possible to liberate Mariupol and other major cities and towns without artillery bombardment?” Perendzhiev replied, “I think that it’s quite possible. They’d have to take encircling settlements and gradually squeeze out the enemy. I’d call it a military-police operation”. The presenter retorted, “That’d mean that the VSN would have larger losses”. Perendzhiev shot back, “Such tactics would win the sympathy of the local population, which in turn would help reduce VSN casualties”.
Vyacheslav Tetyokin, a KPRF member of the RF Gosduma Committee on Defence, said, “I think that the junta still has an advantage in numbers, they can still call up more men in new waves of mobilisation, and they still have more equipment in their depots that they can try to bring up to operational condition. However, history shows us that often a small mobile and motivated army can defeat numerically larger enemy armies. We see something similar in Novorossiya. The VSN is successful against larger, but weaker, junta forces. Mainly, most of the hastily raised junta troops don’t want to fight. On the other hand, the VSN is willing to sacrifice. They have something to defend and die for… you can’t say that about the junta forces. In addition, as time goes on, as volunteers enter the VSN, and as it defeats the junta forces, the military potential of the parties is becoming equivalent”.
The presenter asked Tetyokin, “In your opinion, will the VSN liberate Mariupol without an artillery bombardment?” Vyacheslav Nikolayevich said, “Firstly, I’d like to say that the monstrous hypocrisy of the West and the Kiev junta amazes me. They refuse to acknowledge the dozens of civilians killed by shelling in Donetsk, Pervomaisk, Gorlovka, and other cities in the DNR and LNR. However, as soon as an opportunity to blame the shelling of Mariupol upon the VSN, they raised a universal lament. Speaking of crimes, let’s remember who bombarded Slavyansk in May. Furthermore, I’m sure that the Kiev junta has perpetrated monstrous provocations. They needed to blame something on the Novorossiyans, just as they did with the MH17 incident, to show the whole world ‘VSN atrocities’. I’m convinced that the rocket strike in Mariupol was on the direct orders of the Kiev junta, as the VSN offensive terribly scares them. They need the international community to put pressure on Russia, so that the Russians would force Novorossiya to return to the defence and return to ‘negotiations’. With regard to the use of artillery, look at the tactics of the junta forces themselves… they stormed cities in Novorossiya and destroyed them with their shelling. There wasn’t any military necessity for this. VSN strongpoints are usually outside city limits. If they are within the city, modern artillery direction allows one to direct strikes to within a few metres. However, the junta forces destroy without justification. As for the VSN, it’s shown that they’re able to liberate areas using only infantry. I think that they could do the same in their advance on Mariupol”.
26 January 2015
KPRF.ru
KPRF official website
http://kprf.ru/party-live/opinion/138577.html
Voices from Russia 
V N Tetyokin: The Novorossiyan Forces Show that They can Liberate Areas Without the Use of Heavy Weapons
Tags: civil unrest, DNR, Donetsk, Donetsk People's Republic, LNR, Lugansk People's Republic, Mariupol, Novorossiya, political commentary, politics, Russia, Russian, Ukraine, Ukrainian Civil War, war and conflict
1242… 1380… 1612… 1709… 1812… 1941… and 2014. All those who march on Russia shall be put to death…
_______________________________
Interfax quoted A V Zakharchenko, the Chairman of the DNR Government, as saying, “Fighting continues; we’re trying to link up with the LNR, to combine our forces”. On Русской весне (Russian Spring), Shurigin offered the following commentary on the military situation opened by the recent fighting in the Donbass, “According to the most comprehensive estimates, the bandits lost at least 350 killed and 900 wounded, and lost 40 tanks, 80 AFVs/MICVs and 100 guns and mortars. During the ten days of fighting, VSN casualties amounted to 150 killed and 400 wounded, losing 10 tanks and 30 artillery pieces and mortars”.
The junta command had to pull strategic reserves from the Slavyansk, Artyomovsk, and Lisichansk to prevent a breach in their lines and to keep the Debaltsevo pocket from being cut off. However, they held the front; the reserves didn’t enter action, allowing the junta the option to open its own offensive operations. In turn, the VSN has to keep a reserve in case of a junta counterattack, it can only support the advance of its forward elements with artillery, which reduces the rate of advance and doesn’t allow them to enlarge tactical successes effectively. The VSN launched its offensive after junta shelling killed 13 civilians at a bus stop in Donetsk. Today, in Gorlovka, Zakharchenko again confirmed that the main objective of the offensive was to make further junta shelling of major Donbass cities impossible.
Its initial defeats generated a defeatist mood in the junta forces. Andrei Beletsky, the commander of the Azov Battalion said, “We weren’t ready for the current confrontation. The generals and politicians have already lost their war”. Now, the fiercest fighting is near Debaltsevo, where the junta forces are in a virtual pocket. However, despite this, they still receive reinforcements. Apparently, in connection with events on the afternoon of 26 January, “Prime Minister” A P Yatsenyuk said that the junta introduced a high alert throughout the country and a state of emergency in Novorossiya. Rostislav Ishchenko, President of the Centre of Systems Analysis and Forecasting, commenting on Свободной прессе (Free Press), said, “Yatsenyuk’s decision changes nothing. As Poroshenko refuses to impose martial law, Yatsenyuk, as the head of civil defence, can impose a state of emergency. He did that, but it’s really nothing but a symbolic gesture. In practise, it added nothing new to what we see in the Ukraine”.
Aleksandr Perendzhiev, political scientist and military expert, observed, “Commanders and troops of the VSN are united in the belief that it’s necessary to liberate all the DNR and LNR. In the meantime, their immediate task is to push the front away from Donetsk, to safeguard the city from further junta shelling. Again, as it was at the end of August last year, the most pressing situation is the liberation of Mariupol. I think that the VSN should take it, as it’d be a turning point in the liberation of the LNR and DNR national territory. In addition, it’d immediately increase the geopolitical weight of Novorossiya. Mariupol as a port would it give it a certain economic self-sufficiency.
The Свободной прессе presenter asked Perendzhiev, “How is the fighting going, and how can we judge the direction of the VSN offensive, where is it going next?” Perendzhiev replied, “With regard to the number of weapons, it’s difficult to say who has more of them now. However, clearly, the VSN is superior to the enemy in terms of morale. Almost all troops are motivated to continue the war until victory. Most junta troops don’t want to fight. They only think about how they can get out of the war alive. Of course, the junta’s ‘volunteer’ battalions also have high motivation, but they mostly show their ‘heroism’ against civilians. In combat conditions, they don’t ‘stand up and fight’. In addition, the decomposition of the junta continues. The ground beneath their feet is increasingly shaky. The fact that the ‘volunteer battalions’ are refusing to go to the most critical sections of the front illustrates this. Apparently, they hold back so that they can protect their paymasters in the case of societal collapse or so that they could bring their paymasters to power. I think that the anniversary of the Maidan victory should bring in some action… it’s possible that there may even be another coup. After all, many Ukrainian political elements believe that they didn’t get what they deserved after Yanukovich’s overthrow. The Right Sector may well say that the junta robbed it of victory. In any case, political instability in Kiev will lead to further demoralisation in the junta forces. Until then, probably, the VSN wouldn’t initiate a large-scale offensive, but will continue to besiege the enemy in local operations”.
The presenter broke in, “Zakharchenko said that the VSN hadn’t shelled Mariupol and they don’t intend to do that. Is it possible to liberate Mariupol and other major cities and towns without artillery bombardment?” Perendzhiev replied, “I think that it’s quite possible. They’d have to take encircling settlements and gradually squeeze out the enemy. I’d call it a military-police operation”. The presenter retorted, “That’d mean that the VSN would have larger losses”. Perendzhiev shot back, “Such tactics would win the sympathy of the local population, which in turn would help reduce VSN casualties”.
Vyacheslav Tetyokin, a KPRF member of the RF Gosduma Committee on Defence, said, “I think that the junta still has an advantage in numbers, they can still call up more men in new waves of mobilisation, and they still have more equipment in their depots that they can try to bring up to operational condition. However, history shows us that often a small mobile and motivated army can defeat numerically larger enemy armies. We see something similar in Novorossiya. The VSN is successful against larger, but weaker, junta forces. Mainly, most of the hastily raised junta troops don’t want to fight. On the other hand, the VSN is willing to sacrifice. They have something to defend and die for… you can’t say that about the junta forces. In addition, as time goes on, as volunteers enter the VSN, and as it defeats the junta forces, the military potential of the parties is becoming equivalent”.
The presenter asked Tetyokin, “In your opinion, will the VSN liberate Mariupol without an artillery bombardment?” Vyacheslav Nikolayevich said, “Firstly, I’d like to say that the monstrous hypocrisy of the West and the Kiev junta amazes me. They refuse to acknowledge the dozens of civilians killed by shelling in Donetsk, Pervomaisk, Gorlovka, and other cities in the DNR and LNR. However, as soon as an opportunity to blame the shelling of Mariupol upon the VSN, they raised a universal lament. Speaking of crimes, let’s remember who bombarded Slavyansk in May. Furthermore, I’m sure that the Kiev junta has perpetrated monstrous provocations. They needed to blame something on the Novorossiyans, just as they did with the MH17 incident, to show the whole world ‘VSN atrocities’. I’m convinced that the rocket strike in Mariupol was on the direct orders of the Kiev junta, as the VSN offensive terribly scares them. They need the international community to put pressure on Russia, so that the Russians would force Novorossiya to return to the defence and return to ‘negotiations’. With regard to the use of artillery, look at the tactics of the junta forces themselves… they stormed cities in Novorossiya and destroyed them with their shelling. There wasn’t any military necessity for this. VSN strongpoints are usually outside city limits. If they are within the city, modern artillery direction allows one to direct strikes to within a few metres. However, the junta forces destroy without justification. As for the VSN, it’s shown that they’re able to liberate areas using only infantry. I think that they could do the same in their advance on Mariupol”.
26 January 2015
KPRF.ru
KPRF official website
http://kprf.ru/party-live/opinion/138577.html