In this forum, as it was likely in others, it was contended that the Ukrainian forces were winning the war outright, when it instead turned out Russians were in a retreat and a consolidation of forces ordered by Russian commanders.
What the Russians needed is what they got: rear guards holding back Ukrainian mobile forces long enough to enable that consolidation.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
Text taken from the Telegram channel of cs_association_0
Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin is in italics.
[ColonelCassad] The heroism of Captain Zintsov's group.
You know my fanaticism about studying the Battle of Krasny Liman in 2022. Of course, I wrote one analysis article and two interviews with a participant in that battle. However, in the analysis, I only briefly mentioned the special forces group, almost all of which perished during the final stage of Russian troops' withdrawal from the region to the LPR.
On September 29, 2022, in the village of Stavki, just north of Krasny Liman, a special forces group from the 2nd Special Forces Brigade of the Main Directorate of the General Staff found itself caught in a brutal cycle of events.
Stavki was shaken by artillery fire, the Ukrainians began to tighten the encirclement on the outskirts, and the scouts held their positions as the army retreated. Pictured is Senior Lieutenant Vyacheslav Zintsov, a graduate of the Ryazan Higher Airborne Command School.
Before entering the academy, he studied at the boarding school of the Nikolo-Shartomsky Monastery in the Ivanovo Region. How many actual monks are we seeing in this war?
So, the group under his command (he was the most senior in rank, hence the conclusion) was surrounded and came under artillery fire. Nine men were killed in one fell swoop, and only one survived. At least that's what the obituaries say. They also say they were fighting off attacks by Ukrainian assault aircraft (no infantry was storming the headquarters at the time), but I'm sticking with the first version.
What's my point? Back then, it wasn't exactly common to lose a dozen special forces soldiers at once, which makes Zintsov's group unique. While they were dying, some of the "Barsiks" were emerging from Krasny Liman, lucky enough to escape the encirclement unharmed.
Why did the special forces perish? I think it was due to a shortage of personnel. Due to a personnel shortage, the special forces were practically thrown into fortifications and providing cover for retreating troops, something we haven't seen for quite some time now.
Plenty of examples of sacrifice of foot soldiers in the Red Army, for example, existed in similar circumstances.
What's to do at Stavka? This is just a rural village in the north, where no combat operations had ever taken place in September 2022. It was held only as a road from the north to Krasny Liman, the garrison there was always small.
Nine special forces at a time, and during the Second Chechen War, this scandal would have been a real headache for everyone, but now they didn't even pay attention.
May the fallen special forces rest in peace. They stood their ground to the end, ensuring the withdrawal of the troops. This was a common occurrence in those months – there weren't enough men at the front due to the delay in partial mobilization, so even in the summer and fall of 2022, on the same Kherson front, special forces were often sent to plug the weakened front.
It was with their help that they more or less evacuated the troops, despite the retreat from Kherson and the defeat at Balakliya. Of course, elite specialists are not designed for this, but in those circumstances they acted like a fire brigade.