[KP] Voenkor Kots spent Defender of the Fatherland Day with real heroes on the front line
by Alexander Kots
GOING ALONG FOR THE RIDE? LET'S DROP GRAD ROCKETS THERE!
- Happy holiday, comrade officers! - I crawl on February 23 into the underground control room of one of the Russian formations.
A dozen men in uniform stare at several large screens. From the side, one might think that this is an organized viewing of a festive concert or congratulations from the Supreme Commander-in-Chief. But on the monitors - no shiny tinsel, no bravura fanfare, no pop stars. Defender of the Fatherland Day in the NVO zone is not a reason to break away from combat work. The screens display a picture from drones, which, overcoming the electronic suppression of the enemy, transmit the picture from the other side in real time.
- What is it going along the clearing? Point, - the officer commands.
A man with a joystick, like from a game console, zooms in on an armored car. This is an enemy armored personnel carrier. He drives into the forest, thinking that he is becoming invisible to our drones. But from the control point it is clearly visible how two people leave the “box”, they are met by a third and keeping a distance they are walking together somewhere in the snow. The drone guides them for 10 minutes until they “lead” our operator to a hidden stronghold dug in a thicket and carefully camouflaged. Looks like one of the bosses came to inspect.
- Let's "Grad" there.
Grad being a 122mm rocket artillery system, BM-21
- Consumption?
- Two to five.
This means that five rockets are fired at the enemy position first. After the adjustment - five more. Ten more followed them, plunging the opornik into black smoke, after which no movement was noted in the forest.
The armored personnel carrier managed to leave somewhere, but the operators find a new target - an artillery gun similar to the American M777 howitzer. This time, the communications from the control center go to the operators of the Lancet loitering ammunition, which are based a few kilometers away. Minutes later, the control room already has footage of the defeat, filmed by a kamikaze drone.
GETTING BACK WHAT YOU LEFT LAST YEAR
Actually, ideally, this is how the notorious RUK should look like - a reconnaissance-strike circuit. When both command and control, and artillery, and drones, and assault squads of different units work as a single organism.
But just a few months ago, the line of resistance here, near Kremennaya, was bursting at the seams. The enemy really threatened to break through the defense and reach the rear of the Luhansk People's Republic. And in the fall, after the Kharkov region, we could lose part of the LPR.
However, units of the Airborne Forces were hastily transferred here, to which I came to visit on a festive morning. It was they who were able to stop the offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. And the mobilized who arrived in the landing units did not just stabilize the line of defense. Today, they are advancing along with the regular military, occupying more advantageous frontiers and wringing out the positions lost last year.
The paratroopers today operate on almost the entire Svatovsky line, moving both towards Liman and Belogorovka. At the same time, they can boast of new weapons that are transferred to the troops straight from the factories. The same "Lancets" - domestic kamikaze drones - have been very active in this direction in recent weeks. They reach where artillery cannot fire.
“Or brand new BMD-4s (airborne combat vehicles - Ed.) came to us, Berezhok, again, very worthy vehicles,” a familiar officer of the 76th Guards Airborne Division tells me.
Together we went to one of the sectors of the front, where his subordinates operate. Also from among the mobilized.
PREPARING A HOT MEETING WITH ABRAMS TANKS
- Your ideas about the fighting strongly diverged from reality? - I ask Sergey from the Kemerovo region, the commander of the BMP-2M (infantry fighting vehicle. - Ed.) "Berezhka" with the inscription on the board "Kuzbass is power!"
- Well, no one was expecting a “kindergarten” here, everyone understood that this was not childish pranks. The adversary is strong, no one spares anyone. Well, no one canceled cunning and military ingenuity. We have the necessary weapons, we crush the enemy.
"Berezhok" is the second birth of the good old BMP-2. Only in addition to the usual 30-mm cannon, it now has four Kornet anti-tank systems, a heavy machine gun and an automatic grenade launcher. Moreover, all four "Cornets" can be fired at one point by the machine. And at the training ground, the mobilized worked out shooting with a "doublet". It will certainly come in handy when NATO-style tanks appear on the line of contact.
The same "Abrams" with one missile can not be taken. And when two, but in one place - the chances are much greater. And the armor of the BMP-2M is more serious.
"Recently, they came under mortar fire, grabbed a charge under the “goose” - the car is intact, the entire crew is healthy," says Sergey. - And of course here the internal equipment is of a completely different class. And thermal imagers, and night vision devices, and the fire control system are all very accurate and reliable. We work at night without problems.
Sergey served six years ago in the Far East, in the 83rd Air Assault Brigade. After the "demobilization" he was an individual entrepreneur - metal acceptance, construction. According to him, when the summons was handed over, he had no doubts.
- If you do not go against the adversary, then he will soon stand at our gate. I would not want my family to suffer from this.
- This is probably the first such holiday in your life. Has your attitude towards him changed?
- More pride in the native army. I want to congratulate my relatives and colleagues, comrades in arms. Good luck and most importantly, be patient. We will definitely win.
NOW THE OPPONENT JUMPS ON THE CORNERS, CATCHING THE BLOWS
As in Artemovsk (Bakhmut), near Kremennaya, the Armed Forces of Ukraine are suffering huge losses. At the same time, they cling to every bush and are constantly looking for opportunities to counterattack.
The enemy is trying to crush the positions of our paratroopers and motorized riflemen in small maneuverable groups. If it gets really hot, armored groups come to the aid of our infantry. Several cars roll out for direct fire and literally pierce the forest in front of them. As a rule, after the "command performance" of our BMD and BMP, the enemy's offensive fuse fades away.
- Sometimes it's easy to push through the enemy, sometimes it's very difficult, but be that as it may, we move forward. We have one goal. Where it is hard - to endure, where it is easier - to rest. We work with artillery or armored groups. Reconnaissance transmits coordinates to us, coordinates our actions from the air, we leave, suppress enemy fire, and infantry enters under our cover, another mobilized tells me.
Oleg from Omsk, he also served in the Airborne Forces, in the 137th Regiment in Ryazan, as a driver. On the "citizen" he worked as a master for the shipment of finished products.
- After the army, of course, I celebrated February 23, not really thinking about the essence. And now I understand that I am literally defending my Motherland.
- By cars! - the command sounds.
And Oleg with his crew in a convoy of three combat vehicles is advanced to the next task in the area of the Torsky ledge, where Russian paratroopers are pushing the enemy towards Seversk and Belogorovka. From the east, the enemy group is crushed by motorized rifles and units of the 2nd Army Corps of the LPR, from the south - by groups of Wagner PMCs, which in parallel form an encirclement ring around Artemovsk.
"The initiative is now on our side," one of the commanders told me.
- If earlier I felt like a goalkeeper in training, who jumped from one corner to another, plugging holes, now in this position - the enemy. The main thing is to move so that he does not have the opportunity to concentrate strike groups in any direction. Now let the APU jump all over the "goalkeeper".