The Times - UK (2022-05-26)

34 V2 Thursday May 26 2022 | the times

Wo r l d

Hundreds of Belarusian troops along

the border with Ukraine are serving as

a distraction to stretch Ukrainian

forces so thinly that they cannot

support operations in Donbas, military

sources believe.

Up to seven battalions of the Belaru-

sian army have been sent to strengthen

the border region, the Ukrainian armed

forces said today.

A Ukrainian military source said

there was not a huge threat of the forces

invading, but they were a “considerable

distraction”. “Their presence on the

border makes us keep reserves in the

north,” the source said.

A Ukrainian territorial defence unit

made up of fighters aged between 19

and their mid-60s has manned a net-

work of trenches and positions in the

Russia’s military campaign is going
more slowly than planned, the defence
minister has admitted, while making
clear that the country is settling in for a
long war.
Sergei Shoigu, a key ally of President
Putin, said that Moscow was allowing
residents of encircled cities to flee. “Of
course, this slows down the pace of the
offensive, but it is done deliberately to
avoid civilian casualties,” he told the
Collective Security Treaty Organisa-
tion, a Russian-led military alliance of
some former Soviet states.
President Zelensky dismissed the
idea that the Russians were holding
back on purpose as “absolutely unreal”.
Western analysts have been saying
for months that the war is going more
slowly than the Kremlin would have

Advance has been slow, admits Putin’s defence chief

liked. “Shoigu’s statement is notably his

first admission that Russian forces are

behind schedule and is the first official

statement on the pace of the war since

President Lukashenko of Belarus

stated that the operation was dragging

on on May 4,” said the Institute for the

Study of War (ISW), a Washington

think tank.

It said that Russian bloggers were

criticising Shoigu’s alleged concern for

civilians, claiming that Soviet troops

would not have cared if “Nazi” civilians

were evacuated.

This is “part of the growing Russian

nationalist reaction that the Kremlin is

not doing enough to win the war in

Ukraine”, the ISW said.

In reality, Russian forces have target-

ed civilians throughout the war and

repeatedly denied Ukrainian attempts

to negotiate evacuation corridors.

Shoigu claimed that the army did not

strike civilian infrastructure, instead

hitting military targets with “high

precision weapons”. He said: “We will

continue the special military operation

until all the objectives have been

achieved,” using the Kremlin’s phrase

for the war.

Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of

Russia’s security council, said the offen-

sive would last as long as necessary.

“We are not rushing to meet deadlines,”

he said.

Although Russian troops have made

greater advances in Donbas in the past

week compared with earlier in the

month, progress remains slow and

confined to small objectives, according

to ISW analysis.

It said Russian forces were likely to

face lengthy urban combat if they

encircled Severodonetsk, the largest

city remaining in Ukrainian hands in

the Luhansk region, one of two “break-

away republics” loyal to Moscow in the

far east of the country.

Rob Taylor, a former Royal Marine

who is a director at 4GD, which offers

urban combat training to British troops,

said: “Urban conflict against a peer

enemy is the single hardest thing you

can do in the military. This is going to be

where the conflict slows down dramati-

cally as the Russian forces focus on the

cities.”

Larisa Brown Defence Editor

Sergei Shoigu

blamed slow

progress on the

need to avoid

civilian casualties

B el ar us i an

Larisa Brown

Moral support Soldiers from the Royal Welsh battlegroup are among 15,000 troops

which together make up the Donbas, is

the Russians’ prime target. Severodo-

netsk, once home to 100,000 people, is

the biggest town in Luhansk still in

Ukrainian hands, but the invaders are

approaching its eastern outskirts.

The development was acknowledged

by President Zelensky in his nightly ad-

dress to the nation. “All the remaining

strength of the Russian army is now

concentrated on this region,” he said.

“The occupiers want to destroy every-

thing there.”

To the west, two flanking movements

threaten to encircle Severodonetsk

and a string of towns and villages

in the countryside. That means

the Ukrainians have a choice of

whether to withdraw or fight on,

and risk being surrounded.

Tens of thousands of civilians

in Severodonetsk and its sur-

rounds are at risk as Russia’s

heavy guns bludgeon the

area. Six people were killed

and eight wounded on

Tuesday.

For them, leaving now

would be even riskier than

staying: the main road

from Severodonetsk to

safety via the town of

Bakhmut is under

regular artillery fire

from the Russians.

About 60 miles west of

The likely outcome of the battle for
Severodonetsk is being told in the
mathematics of artillery fire.
“Usually we’re shooting at a distance
of about nine miles,” said Filin, a senior
Ukrainian officer. “But we’ve lost
ground this week. Now we’re shooting
at the Russians from five miles away.”
He was speaking near the front lines
of the Ukrainian defences as his team
waited for new targeting co-ordinates
for their two Soviet-era 2S1 Gvozdika
122mm self-propelled howitzers. All
around, the heavy thump of outgoing
artillery fire from other units intermin-
gled with machinegun chatter and the
barking of dogs in a nearby village.
Filin’s men were full of bravado, but
nervous. The infantry in front of them
are in retreat, because the war has not
been going as well here as many pre-
dicted it would after the mass with-
drawal of Russian troops from the
northern front seven long weeks ago.
A veteran of the fighting in the
Donbas region in 2015, Filin was
not giving up hope, but he admit-
ted: “Now there are air and mis-
sile attacks, it’s harder to
defend ourselves. Seeing
that overhead is terrify-
ing. I’m disappointed
about how it’s going. I
can only speak
about this region of
the war, but I think
something is going
wrong.”
The capture of
the Luhansk and
Donetsk regions,

Luhansk defenders

face a choice: flee

or be surrounded

Severodonetsk an airstrike hit a resi-

dential area in the town of Kramatorsk

yesterday, one of many across Donetsk.

Filin, 47, a veteran soldier with a side-

line in car racing, shrugs off near misses

such as a shell landing a few yards from

him. His men are farmers and business-

men, even a priest, ranging in age from

19 to 58, but this is not the first time on

the front lines for most of them.

The unit remains upbeat but cracks

in morale are appearing. “Normally we

do 24-hour shifts, but yesterday all the

units were working,” said Filin.

The gunners are excited by the new

technology that has transformed this

war. Drones are used alongside defence

mapping software, and shots can be

calculated within 30 seconds, said Mor-

yak, 25, who commanded one of the

two howitzers. In the old days, it was

paper maps, compasses and arithmetic.

“I don’t see much from inside the tur-

ret hatch but we get sent video footage

of successful strikes and watch [Russian

soldiers] screaming,” he said, with some

satisfaction. “It usually only takes a

couple of shots for us to hit the target.

We don’t have to completely destroy

Russian artillery, we just have to stop it.”

The Ukrainians hope that the dam-

age they inflict on Russia’s forces will

demoralise them and soften them up

for a counter-attack at some point, even

if the Russians are making gains now.

What they really want, though, is

their share of the better equipment

being provided by Ukraine’s friends in

the West. When asked what support

they needed from the international

community the men raised their voices

in unison: “Weapons!”

“We don’t need Nato soldiers, we just

need their weapons,” Filin said.

Putin's war claims the life of a

film-maker, Times 2, pages 8 and 9

Kissinger’s advice to Ukraine is terribly

wrong, David Aaronovitch, page 29

Letters, page 32

Severodonetsk

Rubizhne

Luhansk

Izyum

Kreminna

Slovyansk

Kramatorsk

Lyman

Bakhmut Popasna

DONDONDONOETSETSETSKKK

25 miles

Russian-held territory
Ukraine Russian advance
Charlie Faulkner Donbas
Richard Spencer Kyiv

Filin echoed the
appeal for weapons
to fight the Russians