Subjectivity made Russia pay the price on the battlefield in Ukraine

The Russian army is said to have suffered unnecessary losses after victories on the Ukrainian battlefield due to the complacency and sometimes even contempt of its commanders.
Recently, the Russian army made significant progress north of Donetsk and captured the fortress city of Avdiivka, but suffered heavy losses in the village of Trudivske, Volnovakha district in the Donetsk region, Eastern Ukraine.

On February 20, the 36th Guards Mechanized Infantry Brigade of Russia's 29th Army, lining up in the open field of the village to wait for instructions from the commander, was attacked by Ukrainian fire and suffered casualties. heavy death.

According to BBC, about 200 to 300 Russian officers and soldiers from 3 companies of the 36th Brigade present at the scene were hit by missiles from Ukraine's HIMARS high-mobility rocket artillery system, with a number of casualties. believed to number more than 60 people. This is not a small loss, because the event caused these three infantry companies to lose their ability to fight.

The Brigade's predecessor was the 36th Guards Infantry Division, which participated in the famous Stalingrad defense campaign in World War 2.

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the 36th Guards Mechanized Infantry Brigade, as the elite force of the Russian army, repeatedly participated in international military sports competitions such as "Tank Biathlon" and "Suvorov Assault". In addition, the Brigade participated in the Zapad-2021 exercise.

Since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Brigade 36 has been deployed in the Ukrainian battlefield; In 2023, the unit repeatedly fought with the Ukrainian army in the direction of Zaporizhia and repelled many enemy attacks

The Ukrainian Army's missile attack on February 20 caused heavy losses to the 36th Brigade, certainly depriving the Russian army of an important "fist" that was attacking strongly on the Zaporizhia front line.

The question is why did the Russian army make such an elementary mistake, gathering at the front to listen to instructions and then be blamed? Is the Ukrainian army much better than the Russian army in this regard? This is due to the bureaucratic habits of the Russian Army commander

Subjectivity causes damage to the Russian Army

The Ukrainian army's success in this surprise raid was mainly based on two factors. On the one hand, they have the US-supported HIMARS high-mobility rocket launcher, although its performance indicators are almost identical to the Russian military's BM-30 Tornado rocket artillery system.

However, HIMARS receives NATO intelligence support and has a faster response speed than Tornado and its 80km range with the M31 satellite guided missile, still poses a greater threat to targets. of the Russian army deep behind the front lines.

On the other hand, part of the reason may be due to bureaucracy somewhere within the Russian military apparatus itself. Since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in 2022, although most Russian officers and soldiers have gradually adapted to this war, from the initial state of confusion, to a state of high combat readiness, but Russian generals still performed some "magical actions" from time to time, which led to unnecessary losses. The tragedy in the village of Trudivsk on February 20 was not the first time it happened on the battlefield in Ukraine.

An almost identical tragic incident happened half a year ago in June 2023. At that time, the 144th Guards Mechanized Infantry Division of the Russian 20th Army was on duty in the Kremina area of ​​the Luhansk region. The army commander that day visited the unit, officers and soldiers of the division gathered to listen to instructions. Because the general arrived late, these soldiers had to wait in the area for more than 2 hours. hour and was detected by Ukraine's reconnaissance UAV.

The end result was that under the direction of the reconnaissance UAV, Ukraine's HIMARS missiles arrived to attack the Russian troops gathered here, killing dozens of people at the scene and a large number of people injured. was also taken to the emergency room. According to Ukrainian statistics, the number of casualties is more than 200 people.

However, according to DW newspaper (Germany), this is not the most tragic thing. On January 1, 2023, in the city of Makayevka in the Donetsk region, officials' slow response and lax approach to The Russian commander's military deployment caused the greatest loss and casualties to the Russian army from the beginning of the war until now.

Makayevka is a "twin city" located just northeast of Donetsk, about 19 to 25km from the battle front. From a military perspective, this is not a safe area, but only a "relatively safe" area, while still within direct artillery range. However, because this is a city with good infrastructure, the Russian army happened to station a large number of mobilized troops in the building at Vocational School No. 19 in Makiivka, while there was a lot of Russian activity around. people.

In Donetsk, although most of the population speaks Russian, Ukraine has also installed undercover agents and everyone can understand what consequences this will lead to. At the same time, Russian commanders did not keep the location of their troops secret and closely guarded the gathering areas, so they let the conscripts use cell phones and organize a party. party on the night of January 1st.

When a large number of strange mobile phone signals appear in a building, there are also offsite intelligence personnel to help observe and identify them. For such a large concentration of troops, it is an opportunity for Ukraine to launch a fire attack with HIMARS missiles. That night, the Ukrainian army fired six M31 missiles at Vocational School No. 19 in Makiivka. Two missiles were intercepted by Russian troops, the remaining four hit the place where Russian troops were holding a party.

In this attack, the Russian army admitted that 89 people were killed, while the Ukrainian army said that the number of Russian soldiers killed was about 400 people. In addition to the army, the navy and air force also caused some chaos due to subjective issues. The Black Sea Fleet was sunk one after another by unmanned ships, the Russian Air Force's A-50 early warning aircraft and Su-25 attack aircraft were shot down by their own people, and the airport behind did not pay attention. Pay attention to security work, let criminals sneak in and burn the plane..

In fact, starting from 2023, the overall performance of the Russian army is still quite good such as the successful siege and capture of Bakhmut, the defense of Zaporizhia or the recent control of Avdiivka..., all battles are takes place in a more orderly manner. However, these subjectivities brought unnecessary losses to the Russian army, which was on the move.SS