The situation in the Novopavlivske direction is close to critical, the commander of the 3rd mechanized battalion of the Special Rifle Brigade, Oleg "Alligator", told the Espresso TV channel. According to him, the enemy is increasing its personnel and equipment, and the intensity of assaults has almost doubled over the past five days.
" In our area of responsibility, the occupiers are not yet conducting mechanized assaults, but they are using armored vehicles to carry out logistics and transport personnel to disembarkation points, which are several kilometers from the line of combat contact ," the battalion commander said. He also noted that the enemy has begun to use motorized vehicles, which gives them maneuverability and allows them to approach the line of contact before the assault.
According to "Alligator", the Russians try not to act head-on, but to bypass positions and approach settlements from the flanks. This is often accompanied by the actions of the DRG: " Unfortunately, it is not always possible to detect the enemy, so the DRG can enter from the rear of the settlement, which creates a lot of additional problems for us ."
The combat unit also drew attention to the enemy's practice of spreading statements about the "capture" of settlements based on isolated provocations: " They have taken it upon themselves to announce the capture of our settlement when two enemy infantrymen ran up and hung up their rag, after which we killed them... such information needs clarification, because it usually does not correspond to reality ."
After clearing the villages, Ukrainian defenders face the problem of their further holding, Oleh added. According to him, the occupiers use guided aerial bombs (GABs), FPV drones, and fiber-optic drones, which destroy infrastructure and make it difficult for defenders to consolidate in liberated areas, as a result of which they are sometimes forced to retreat to more convenient lines behind settlements.
