The Russian army switched its attention from storming the outskirts of Pokrovsk to the south – now the largest number of attacks is taking place in the Kurakhiv direction. There, the aggressor has the biggest advances – during October 7 and 8, DeepState reported about the capture by the Russian army of Krasnohorivka and Zhelany Pershy, as well as about successes near Tsukuryny, Hirnyk, and Maksimilianivka. Judging by the map, the aggressor wants to surround Hirnyk and Kurakhivka, which will allow him to approach the largest city in the south of Donbas under the control of Ukraine – Kurakhovo.
Donbas Realiy (a Radio Liberty project) asked Yegor Firsov, the chief sergeant of the attack UAV company, what he and his comrades are doing in the Pokrovsky direction – what the battles in the south of the Ocheretynsky ledge look like now, who currently has the technological advantage in the “war of drones” and what weapons are needed by the Defense Forces to defeat the aggressor.
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– Yehor, currently the Ukrainian defense on the Pokrovsky and Kurakhiv fronts is, as I understand it, mainly on Selydovo and Hirnyk. The rest are villages, their aggressor passes quite quickly, this can be seen from the updates of the DeepState map: in fact, in a day or two, the enemy takes a new village. You are on Facebook wrotethat in any case the loss of the city harms the defense, because there are much more opportunities for entrenchment in the city than outside the city. As you write, outside the city is a “landing and a hole”. But now, as I understand it, defenders near Pokrovsk are mainly in such realities – in landings and in holes.
– There are defenders near Pokrovsk in such realities, but we have a great advantage, because there is still a city. Pokrovsk and Myrnograd give a great advantage: we can maneuver more, hide equipment more, work more. For example, those who work with reconnaissance or strike UAVs can work under the cover of the city.
Pokrovsk and Mirnograd give a big advantage
In the city, you have a minimum, not even a minimum – and you’re welcome! – Tericons, you have, roughly speaking, garages, hangars, factories. In the Donetsk region, in Pokrovsk, Mirnograd, for example, there are a lot of them. Working from there, hiding there is a huge advantage. There are some places where artillery, in general, is not particularly scary for you. You have to be afraid of air missiles, S-300 missiles, everything else, whatever it is… The walls will withstand, let’s say so.
And I wrote about the fact that if, God forbid, something happens, and the city falls. For example, how was it with Avdiivka: Avdiivka is at a height, very profitable [розташована]there are natural boundaries, including a railway, under which you can hide, there are factories of various types, there are many basements. And when such an advantage is lost, we get Pokrovsk (gradual withdrawal of Ukrainian forces in the direction of Pokrovsk – ed.)– it turns out that you find yourself in a landing, and behind you is a landing, and in front of you is an enemy who is in the city. That’s it.
– Now I will send to DeepState again, the advance towards Pokrovsk has slowed down. Is this due to the fact that the number of assaults has decreased there, or are there favorable positions for defense in the Armed Forces? How do you comment on this?
– Here we are in our headquarters, in terms of our unit, we discussed it literally 15 minutes ago. We see approx [кількістю] UAVs, that they lost the slope and the emphasis of the downward strike, now they emphasize more on Ugledar and want to achieve some, say, success in Kurakhovo.
And the pace decreased a little from Pokrovsk. Of course, the guys who are there now – we communicate with them, they are in many respects brigades with which we have already crossed paths – to say that it is not easy for them is an understatement. Very, very, very difficult. The barrage of fire there is powerful, the infantry is constantly pre, the guys are really crazy hard, what can I say.
Read also: “They are more afraid of commanders than dying”: how long will the Russian offensive last?
– You, like drones, see Russian troops at ground zero, in the rear, infantry, equipment. What are the trends? More or less equipment, how does Russia protect its equipment, is the Russian policy on infantry changing?
– The tendency is that we conclude, of course, that one should never underestimate one’s opponent. They have adapted to our dronesthey have systems, let’s say, a spectrum analyzer that takes into account where the drone is flying, for example, FPV, transmits a signal to the watch. And if we fly 300 meters away, the enemy can understand what exactly the drone is flying. This is the signal to run out of the armor or out of the car or wherever they are and hide.
The second point is electronic communications systems (of radio electronic warfare — ed.)anti-drone systems. They use everything, starting with simply banal pump-action rifles, shotguns with which they try to shoot down our drones, ending with their EW systems.
We in general – I serve and, in fact, command a fairly advanced unit – we oppose their REB with such “chess”, trying to find exactly those frequencies… It’s no secret, many people here often write to me in the comments, why do you give out secrets. Probably, this is some kind of unique information for the listeners, but in military affairs, the enemy is also the enemy, and we know all this, there are no secrets here. We try to find those frequencies that are not picked up by their EW, and fly by. But, unfortunately, most do not do this, and their drones are pressed by enemy EW.
Because we notice? We notice that they are quite technological. There is not much equipment now, especially armored. That is, a tank is such a rarity. Even a year ago, a tank was not uncommon. Through the drone it was easy to find him, well, maybe not easy, but it was possible to find and see him.
It is not enough to just have a drone – you need to have a technological drone
With the advent of FPV drones [російські] the tanks begin to hide and work only in bad weather, in windy weather, and mostly at night: they have finished their work – and immediately, relatively speaking, they “dump”.
Plus, they burn the tanks very well with these braziers and various nets. So there is a lot of time now (in the Ukrainian military – ed.) goes to technological improvements and countermeasures. It is not enough to just have a drone – you need to have a technological drone that is much stronger than the technical characteristics of other, let’s say, all kinds of “strays”, speaking in the language of the enemy’s army.
– You mentioned that your unit is high-tech, but you still face problems due to the Russian EW. And how much did you reduce the effective damage percentage of equipment because of this?
– Very differently. I was lucky that I had the opportunity to select a team for the unit. The guys are such that if they “penetrated”, they call it that, the drone that fell, there is already a discussion about why so. This is the NATO standard, after-action review (AAR) (Ukrainian “analysis of conducted actions” (APD) – ed.) – that is, why the operation failed, why the drone fell. Is it the wind or something else? Therefore, this analysis allows you to reduce the number of such errors, mistakes and some technological inaccuracies.
Those who have it, this analysis, and those commanders who devote time to this analysis, have a high indicator: I would say more than 50%, 60-80% can be efficiency in FPV drones. This is if we are talking about FPV, other drones I will not tell you because there are bombers, Nemesis (in Russia they are called “Baba-Yaga” – ed.)“Vampires” and the rest. If the commander does not pay any attention to this, the results can be simply disastrous.
Believe me, there are units that fly out, fly out, fly out and can’t overcome enemy EW. Here, the problem is not even with the boys specifically, but with the enemy’s REB. Such a commander cannot technologically find the right solutions and the “birds” fall.
– October 12, the next Rammstein (the conversation took place on October 8, when it was not yet known about abolition meetings – ed.), you are already an experienced fighter, you work in the technological unit. In your opinion, are there any Western weapons, any military aid, that can help to fundamentally change the course of the war? We waited for the artillery, it came, but so far it was not a decisive factor to repel the aggressor. In general, there is such a decisive factor, do you think?
– Yes, I believe that there is such a decisive factor. There are weapons that can change the situation on the battlefield, a kind of game changer. The name of this weapon is drones. This is how paradoxical it may sound – drones. Who will be the best in them from a technological point of view, who will have more of them, will be able to have a strategic advantage.
There is a weapon that can change the situation on the battlefield – drones
What do you need at “Ramstein”? It is necessary to ask the participating countries that provide us with assistance to allocate money: a conditional billion with the possibility for the brigades themselves, that is, the combat units, to purchase specific types, the necessary types of drones. So that the brigade itself, which is currently on the first line of defense, could point a finger at the drone and say: here is this drone, we need these types of drones for tomorrow.
It is not a fact that this should be done in “Ramstein”, maybe there could be another site. But if you pour a conditional billion dollars into such an opportunity for the brigades and give them the opportunity to get their own weapons, believe me, the situation at the front will change. Not that instantly, but it will change in the first month and we will concretely see the result.
Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine
On February 24, 2022, Russia attacked Ukraine on the ground and in the air along the entire length of the common border. The territory of Belarus was used for the invasion of Kyiv region with the intention of capturing the capital. In the south, the Russian army, in particular, occupied part of the Zaporizhia and Kherson regions, and in the north – the regions of Sumy region and Chernihiv region.
Russian President Vladimir Putin calls the full-scale invasion a “special operation.” Initially, its goal was defined as “demilitarization and denazification”, later – “protection of Donbas”. And in September and early October, Russia made an attempt to annex the partially occupied Zaporizhia, Kherson, Donetsk, and Luhansk regions. Ukraine and the West have declared that these actions are illegal. On October 12, the UN General Assembly approved a resolution condemning the Russian Federation’s attempt to annex the occupied territories of Ukraine.
The Russian authorities say that the army does not attack civilian objects. At the same time, Russian aviation, missile forces, navy and artillery bombard Ukrainian cities every day. Residential buildings and objects of civil infrastructure throughout the territory of Ukraine are subject to destruction.
At the end of October, Ukraine estimated Russia’s losses in the war at more than 70,000 dead soldiers. In September, Russia announced that its losses were less than 6,000 dead. In June, President Zelensky estimated the ratio of losses of Ukraine and Russia as one to five.
Having not overcome the resistance of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the surviving Russian units withdrew from the territory of Kyiv, Chernihiv and Sumy regions at the beginning of April. And in September, as a result of a lightning counteroffensive, the Ukrainian army liberated almost the entire occupied part of the Kharkiv region.
On November 11, the Ukrainian Defense Forces pushed the Russian forces out of Kherson.
After the liberation of Kyiv region from Russian troops, facts of mass murders, torture and rape of civilians, including children, were discovered in the cities of Bucha, Irpin, Gostomel and villages of the region.
Ukrainian authorities have declared that Russia is committing genocide. Western countries are involved in confirming the facts of mass murders and investigating them. The Russian Federation rejects accusations of war crimes.
Later, the facts of torture and murder of Ukrainian citizens began to be discovered in almost all settlements that were liberated from the Russian occupation. In particular, in Chernihiv Oblast, Kharkiv Oblast, Kherson Oblast.
Since September 2022, fierce battles of the Russian-Ukrainian war have been going on in the east and south of Ukraine.
On June 6, 2023, the dam of the Kakhov reservoir was completely destroyed (it was under the control of the Russian army from the beginning of March 2022, and in October it was mined by the occupiers), which led to the flooding of a large area, human casualties, the destruction of agricultural land, and the pollution of the Dnipro and the Black Sea. Ukraine called it ecocide.
In total, during the full-scale war from February 24, 2022 to the end of June 2024, the UN verified data on at least 33,878 civilian casualties, including 11,284 deaths.
According to experts, the real number of losses is much higher. According to the Ukrainian authorities, more than 20,000 people could have died during the blockade and bombardment of Mariupol alone.
