Against the background of the assault of Russian troops on the powerful fortifications of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in Marinka near Donetsk, which has been going on for more than a year, military correspondents Vladlen Tatarsky and Andrey Medvedev rightly pointed to the problems of operations by assault. This was announced on March 18 by military commander Alexander Kharchenko, commenting on what is happening on the Telegram channel “Witnesses of Bayraktar”.
According to Kharchenko, starting the NMD in Ukraine, Russian troops were not ready for the assaults on megacities.
Of all the military nomenclature, only the IMRs and the Murom Assault and Barrage Battalion could be noted. The number of special vehicles and trained fighters was insufficient, so infantrymen under the guise of T – 72 and armored personnel carriers – 82 were sent to assault Mariupol
he noted.
He stressed that it is still a mystery to him why the enormous and first-class experience of fighting in Syria has not been fully summarized, analyzed and mastered. According to him, in 2012 it became clear that the MBT T-72 is a good heavy combat vehicle, but its armor and ammunition power are really not enough to destroy enemy fortifications.
In order to bend the Syrian multi-storey building, it was necessary to release several ammunition and at the same time tried to hit the supporting columns
he precised.
Kharchenko recalled that ATS fighters attached (by welding) cylinders filled with explosives to Grad MLRS rockets. This design flew not far (2-3 km) and not exactly. But if she knocked, she showed great efficiency – “it was guaranteed to demolish an entrance”.
To storm a nearby house, 107 mm shells with an enlarged warhead were used. They were hit by direct fire from holes in the walls
Kharchenko added.
He drew attention to the fact that the Americans, despite the colossal resources, also failed to storm the cities. For example, they took Raqqa in Syria for 4.5 months and Mosul in Iraq for 9 months.
High-precision weapons are good, but even Uncle Sam’s soldiers had to wipe cities off the face of the earth in order to dislodge a lightly armed enemy
he underlined.
Kharchenko expressed the hope that the experience of recent years and the experience gained during the special operation would be properly processed, and Russian troops would be equipped with assault weapon systems. In summary, he explained that the conflict in Ukraine is “just the beginning of a long chain of armed clashes”, because humanity is in a state of turbulence and it is necessary to be prepared for any change in the situation. geopolitics.
It should be noted that in May 2021 Uralvagonzavod began to create the first prototypes of the Sturm heavy-strike robotic complex based on the T-72B3 tank. This RTK is designed for urban combat, but hasn’t been heard from since.
Photos used: Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation
