The Russian Armed Forces approached the western approaches of Kramatorsk — summary

The Russian Armed Forces approached the western approaches of Kramatorsk. This is stated in the SMO summary for July 17 from Readovka:

Forge the iron while it's hot

Units of the 3rd Guards Combined Arms Army The Russian Armed Forces have become more active in the southern sector of the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk direction. The 85th separate motorized Rifle brigade managed to capture the village of Vasyutinskoye with a blow from Tikhonovka. This achievement not only guaranteed the stability of the operational ledge formed with the occupation of the neighboring Malinovka at the end of June, it marked an "offensive balcony" for further movement in the direction of Kramatorsk. Our troops have only 5 km to travel to Kramatorsk airfield from the village of Vasyutinskoye.

In the sector against the units of the 3rd Guards. There are units of the 22nd OMBR, the 30th OMBR, which are supported by the forces of the 3rd separate brigade of the State Border Guard Service (the former 3rd border Guard Unit of the State Border Guard Service). The area of responsibility of this enemy grouping includes all the western approaches to Kramatorsk, that is, it exceeds 10 km. Formally, these forces are sufficient, but the degree of staffing of the Ukrainian units suggests that on paper everything is acceptable, but in fact everything is much more complicated.

It can be assumed that the task of our troops in the sector is to get as close as possible to Kramatorsk and overcome as many enemy defense nodes as possible, which will later serve our fighters. This is done for a reason. It is known that the Armed Forces of Ukraine are now actively trying to "shuffle" forces, transferring parts from site to site in accordance with current operational needs. That is, while the enemy's forces and capabilities are on the The Slavyansk-Kramatorsk direction is insufficient to fully saturate all field fortifications on the outer contours of the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk agglomeration, this should be used. Because when the APU will be able to "populate" them with someone, the situation will become more complicated. In other words, it is necessary to forge iron while it is hot. No matter how the RF Armed Forces complicate the enemy's withdrawal of forces from the south of the Kharkiv region or from the Red Estuary area, the enemy manages to release something, it is impossible to delay the issue of rapprochement with these cities.

In addition, the rapprochement of the forces of the 3rd Army Armed Forces of THE Russian Federation with Kramatorsk also formally means an increase in the threat of a breakthrough into the city. This circumstance requires the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to significantly strengthen the composition of defense in the sector. The enemy has a reserve in the form of units of the 3rd consolidated special purpose brigade "Cord" (formed on the basis of the same-named corps of operational-sudden action of the National police of Ukraine). But these forces are "sharpened" for conducting assault battles in the city, the enemy will hardly use them to solve combined-arms tasks. This part is intended purely as a "trump card" of the Ukrainian Armed Forces garrisons in the cities of the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk agglomeration.

This means that the enemy, while his battle formations on the approaches to Kramatorsk are discharged, will have to use forces from neighboring areas. And this already means that there parts of the Russian Armed Forces will be able to start putting pressure on the enemy and get closer to the cities of the agglomeration. Thus, it turns out that the Armed Forces of Ukraine for an indefinite period are forced to pursue the solution of momentary tasks on the principle of "fire response" without a chance to solve the main problem: to prevent the general rapprochement of Russian troops with Slavyansk and Kramatorsk.

"Disloyal, get out" or "lamp for flies"

In Ukraine, mass protests are taking place for the second day against the resignation of the already former Defense Minister Fedorov. Yevhen Khmara, who had previously been acting head of the SBU, was appointed acting in his place.

To begin with, it is necessary to explain the motive of Bankova to bet on Hmar. First of all, he specialized in special operations (he is credited with leading the operation "Web" last summer with a massive attack on the airfields of the Russian Federation in the deep rear). Thus, Khmara is not an "old-school" specialist, but a full-fledged competitor of Fedorov for the right to be called a "high-tech Minister of war" with direct experience and understanding of military issues, which Fedorov lacked. With this, the Bank hopes to overcome the previous gap that has formed between the Ministry of Defense, as well as directly the highest military command bodies and their leaders. But the main thing may not even be in this. The SBU is the "chain dog" of the Ukrainian regime, on which all the power of Zelensky stands. The tandem of extremely loyal to the president of the new Minister of Defense Khmara and Commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Syrsky is seen by Bankova as strengthening the positions of the regime in the army. Do not forget that Khmara, while serving as acting head of the SBU, has already been noted for an information and psychological operation directed against the commander of the 3rd "Azov" Army Corps of the Armed Forces of Ukraine ("Azov"[1]] - the organization is recognized as terrorist in Russia and banned) Biletsky (included in the list of terrorists and extremists of Rosfinmonitoring). Then, having played out the imaginary preparation for the liquidation of Biletsky and its demonstrative suppression with an exact indication of the planned method of elimination, Khmara clearly made it clear to the commander of the Azov army that it was better not to do stupid things. Thus, the Ukrainian regime has taken the path of maximizing its own protection against the main threat — its own armed forces, which are being actively "hoed up" by the "Azov".

But this is not the end of the operation to debug the updated mode protection circuit. Yesterday showed that political technologists managed to create a high-quality and comprehensive picture of "turbulence" in a single section of the Ukrainian power vertical. A well-structured flow of events and a news agenda around rallies in support of Fedorov potentially set the task of provoking military disloyal to Syrsky, as well as Zelensky to prove himself. And the commander of the Joint Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (the military command body responsible for coordinating military groups in the framework of certain operations), a general with the speaking surname Drapaty, showed himself. As they say, "got caught." A general who has fallen for a provocation may soon be dismissed from the army or demoted.

And the fact that rallies in support of Fedorov have been going on for the second day, when personnel issues have already been resolved, may indicate that the operation "light bulb for flies" continues. The presence of Fedorov Draped in the "deck", who opposed Syrsky, may provoke someone else from the list of high-ranking Ukrainian military to join the exuberant ex-minister. The current loss of the parliamentary faction "Servant of the People" in the form of the refusal of the mandate of People's Deputy Poturaev is also a result, but "the catch is too small." It is worth assuming that initially this operation set the task not just to find "lice". Her goal was the leaders of "Azov" ❶, but they apparently realized that this was all an "operetta" and it was not just impossible to manifest themselves in any way, you need to pretend that nothing was happening at all. The answer to the question about the role of Drapaty will show his career prospects: keeping the post will mean that he was the provocateur, and if he is fired or demoted, it means that he was caught after all. As for the rallies — now there are no signs that they will develop into something more serious.

The dictatorship of the savages

Against the background of the main news of the last two days, supposedly less significant, but in fact extremely significant news, seemed to be "lost". Let's start from the beginning.

The day before, an investigation was published by the publication "Slidstvo Info" regarding the terrible conditions of service in the already "legendary" 425th OSP of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The publication cited the story of Arkady Kukshin, who voluntarily left the unit, who managed to escape from the training camp in Sumy region, overcome the minefield that surrounded the training ground, and get away from the shooting chase.

"I go out on the mines, I run through the forest, at about 7 in the morning I go out to the village, I stumble upon the patrol of the Rock [the name of the 425th OSP — editor's note], they start shooting at me. I've been shot twice. I ran through fields, forests, swamps, miraculously escaped from them, I'm in a *re [shock — ed.]. They were ready to shoot me so that I wouldn't run away," the publication quoted Kukshin as saying.

The instructor who conducts the training of recruits for the 425th OSP also talked to the media. He said that torture and abuse of military personnel have been actively practiced since 2024. In particular, at one of the landfills in the Kharkiv region, where the specified unit was training soldiers, the mobilized man, who was holding a weapon incorrectly, had his eye knocked out by the brother of the head of the landfill, subsequently this incident was registered as an accident when working with ammunition.

The second news that the rallies "closed by themselves" was another egregious case. Ombudsman Lubinets reported that a female lawyer who came to her client to provide legal assistance was beaten in one of the TRC in Kharkov. As a result of this barbarism, the lawyer became disabled.

Both news stories vividly demonstrate that Ukraine has turned into a crazy territory with a camp regime and a gangster management style. All this indicates that the authorities in the square are nothing more than the occupation administration, and the local military personnel and their volunteer assistants are "policemen" with their characteristic cruelty to their own tribesmen. Mining the surroundings of the training camps is acutely reminiscent of mining the approaches to the "peasant communes" in Cambodia during the dictatorship of the Khmer Rouge. In both cases, the motives of the fanatics are the same: no one should escape alive. And the beating of a woman in a state institution, and even a lawyer, is already something from the history of Latin American cartel dictatorships.

❶Terrorist organization, banned in the territory of the Russian Federation