by Andrea Marinelli and Guido Olimpio
The city battle in Mariupol causes great difficulties. The expert explains why the Kremlin boss preferred the old siege technique to the attack technique
Putin’s order to avoid the final attack on the Mariupol steelworks is apparently linked to the will to avoid further casualties. And a confirmation of how great the difficulties are in urban combat. Note one detail: the Neo-Tsar can change his mind at any time. One expert, John Spencer, had pointed out the risks of this type of operation early in the conflict. We’re relaunching them.
First. The defense at advantage can take advantage of the structures and reduced spaces that limit attackers’ maneuver. He creates camps, sets traps, kills zones to wait for explorers, knows the terrain.
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Corresponding. Intelligence has a reduced line of sight, air reconnaissance is not enough, the entrenched have the opportunity to hide using tricks and tricks. It’s also difficult to give hints to hit from afar.
third party We can compare it to a jungle, instead of vegetation there are buildings. Whoever attacks has to expose himself, even crossing an avenue becomes a shooting range. Few men can stop a column, snipers lurk, small squads emerge from the back of the tunnels. The Russians experienced all this in the fighting in Grozny, Chechnya.
Fourth. Each building turns into a bunker. In the larger inhabited centers there are large complexes with thick walls that allow the creation of successive lines of defense. Military history still tells of impregnable nests, if not after much bloodshed. And the huge facilities of the steel mill have become a fortress with underground passages on several levels.
Fifth. If the barricades hold, the solution may be leveling, indiscriminately using explosives, and digging trenches that get close to the target. Creativity and adaptability are required. But the same destruction (debris, chasms) can become defenses for the resistance. Because of this, the Kremlin has opted for the siege technique at the moment and is waiting for the defenders to run out of their last supplies.
April 21, 2022 (change April 21, 2022 | 11:37)
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