When operational capabilities are exhausted, it is right and even honorable to stop fighting. There’s no point in letting soldiers fight Mariupolwhich is now in Russian hands. Zelensky should order the surrender. Is an outage from the steel mills possible to retake the city? No, then a boss must be able to say “Enough, give up”». No doubt what the Ukrainian President should do. For the general Marco Bertoliniformer commander of the Coi (Joint Operations Center), the Folgore Brigade and the Col Moschin, on the field in Lebanon, Somalia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, “the fighters of the Azov regiment proved their strength and determination, for the they fought the territory in a hard, brave way. That was their task, to make the Russians waste a lot of time and a lot of men. What else do they have to do operationally? ».
This remains in the steel mill …
“Yes, this resistance has to endure a good game, because a steel mill is a closed environment that allows those who resist to organize themselves well, then there are large underground areas that are difficult to deal with. But it is a redoubt destined to be overwhelmed, these forces cannot receive reinforcements, supplies, or be eliminated ».
One of their commanders asked for the extraction …
“You can do an extraction operation in a semipermissive or permissive environment, but in Mariupol it is impossible for a helicopter to arrive to take someone who is there, they have already tried and shot him down. The Ukrainian fighters in Mariupol have no alternative but to surrender, insisting that they stay to the end would have propaganda rather than military significance. The situation does not change if they last a few days or a week longer. You should give up, that’s it.”
Would the Russians find it difficult to wipe out pockets of resistance?
“The capture of Mariupol was a difficult undertaking, requiring the deployment and loss of many forces. Since the Steelworks is now a point target, no major maneuvers would be required, a strong air strike would suffice. But they don’t want to do it to avoid paying the political price of human lives, civilians and military alike. It is enough for the Russians to wait: no one can bring back these soldiers and in the end they will have to move out ».
There are humanitarian corridors …
“They are for civilians. The military has only one way out: to fight, blasting the path with weapons, or to surrender. The humanitarian corridors also have the disadvantage that when all the civilians leave, at that point the mindclearing missile arrives and kills all that are left ».
Does it need martyrs?
“Zelensky might think that the surrender would easily break the aura of the readyforanything Ukrainian fighters; besides, if they all died fighting in Mariupol, blaming the Russians would be another matter. Any conspiracy notwithstanding, it’s a situation that happened to us too: Mussolini gave the order for Pantelleria to surrender because he had the wrong information that he had to surrender now, according to him it was pointless to lose lives for nothing , in reality it was a fortress island, difficult to conquer. Even more so in Mariupol. Destroying a city is already a very high price to pay, killing many civilians is terrible, and losing brave fighters for nothing makes no sense. The ultimate decision maker is always political”
Conquering the whole Donbass will not be easy …
“The Ukrainian troops facing the two separatist republics have been in a fortified and underground position there for eight years. The point is not to operate against troops in the open, but to defeat the units prepared to defend. Probably there will be no tendency to wipe them out with an offensive, but to cut them off from the rest of the country and take them from behind ».
Won’t they take prisoners in Mariupol?
“Surrender gives guarantees to the soldier in modern and regular armies, it is an institution provided for and regulated by the international law of war. And the Russians have an interest in not creating situations that backfire. They won’t want to pass for orcs. Unlike irregular formations that operate outside of international law and do not respond to precise hierarchical chains ».
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