Thread by @VolodyaTretyak

PART 5 of the interview with gen. Kryvonos made by Mark Solonin and translated by me.
Topic: Battle for Donbas. UA casualties.
original video:


The full text is also available at @wartranslated: wartranslated.com/big-interview-…

Here is also a thread of different parts of the interview. There is also some information about Kryvonos' background and views, as there are many questions about those.

https://twitter.com/VolodyaTretyak/status/1553422810424524804?s=20&t=LMn0c8tRFqScdq68AzCK6A

/1

Translation:

(I): Now, we move on to what has been called the second phase, from late April to Early July. Here's this protracted months-long battle in the Donbas in the northern part of the Donbas. /2

To a person, absolutely, of course, not military, there is an impression that the enemy acted much more successfully. And in this connection, the question is also quite noticeable. /3

The Russian army could not do anything in the first stage, but how did it partially complete some tactical tasks in Donbas? However, They did not solve strategic problems; It had a mission to surround the whole grouping, but they did not even come close to that. /4

But tactically, they still managed to crawl forward a few tens of kilometers to occupy some critical facilities. This is because the density has increased many times over; they have concentrated more than half of what they have on a tiny piece of the front. /5

Or we have to admit that the enemy very quickly drew conclusions and wised up. So how do you, as a military man, look at it? /6

(K): That precisely the second conclusion is a consequence of the first, at the expense of creating the necessary density of fire and concentration of equipment in specific directions. /7

The Russians, using the scorched earth tactics and destroying the Ukrainian armed forces with a mass of artillery fire, have achieved these small tactical successes in capturing certain cities. /8

Because the advantage in those days and those directions in firepower in favor of the Russians was 10:1. And that's due to, again, misconstructed military-economic policy in Ukraine and the lack of shell production. /9

These resulted in an advantage that allowed the Russians to feel much better. So we would start artillery preparation, then it would finish, then Russians would attack, then they resisted at some sectors. So they came back and started to shell our positions methodically. /10

And just like that, day after day, they covered every meter of Ukrainian land with fire.
So it's straightforward. I've always warned more than once about this political leadership now saying that you shouldn't be at war. /11

The biggest mistake was when you thought the enemy was weaker and worse than you. Your job, understanding that the enemy is a strong opponent, an experienced opponent, is to find the weaknesses in his system and hit precisely those places. Then you have a chance to beat him. /12

You don't have to be afraid of the opponent, but you have to respect him and evaluate him correctly. /13

So here again, I say that the Russians, having a great experience of wars over the past almost 30 years, quickly draw conclusions from their mistakes and promptly adjust the tactics of their forces and means.

UA casualties /14

(I): I don't ask for absolute numbers, the number of losses of Ukrainian troops. But I want to ask a theoretical question. And the public thinks that offensive losses must be many times greater than defensive losses. /15

It seems to me from my couch that this was correct in the 12th century when they stormed a fortress. But in twenty-first-century wars, that's not the case at all. /16

And the fact that you describe the Russian offensive this way does not give us any reason to hope that our losses were many times less than the losses of the enemy. /17

(K): Unfortunately, that's true because the real advantage of domination on the field of artillery duels resulted in our losses being far greater than the Russian losses. /18

Because one might imagine war from the old movie, when people go up to the attack and go there in chains, they are shot by machine gunners. Unfortunately, in this war, it's a bit different. There are considerably fewer shooting contacts than artillery fire. /19

So, at the expense of the artillery advantage, the Russians suffered fewer losses than we did. And the fact that the counter-battery was not tight enough because there were simply no shells. So we were taking more casualties than the Russians. /20

Unfortunately, we have to recognize this fact. And it is not the fault of the military; it is the fault for not creating the state's correct military and economic capacity in the last 30 years, having one of the strongest states in the Soviet Union. /21

The people allowed this real potential to be squandered, sold out by a bunch. Leaders who have stood at the pinnacle of power in Ukraine for 30 years have been making money off of it; they've been selling it out. /22

But the money wasn't going into the country; it was going into their own pockets. /23

The last part of the interview will be about Putins` decision to invade. Kryvonos will try to explain why Russia has started this genocidal war.
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