2023-04-29 20:44:40
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This Saturday the Ukrainian army notably targeted a Russian oil depot and deprived of electricity of the villages on the other side of the border. A way to create uncertainty before an operation announced for months.
A Russian oil depot hit by a drone attack in Sevastopol, Russian villages near Belgorod, close to the Ukrainian border, without electricity following artillery fire, as does the village of Nova Kakhovka near Kherson in the South… In a few hours this Saturday, April 29, the Ukrainian army hit the Russians hard at three very distant points.
All-out Ukrainian strikes at the start of the weekend, when the army had been saying for several days that it was in the process of completing the “final preparationsfor his spring counter-offensive. Would she have already started it? “The Ukrainians have never forbidden themselves to hit these positions“, nuance Cédric Mas, military historian and analyst of the conflict. The strike in Sevastopol, in Crimea, would for example have a double utility according to the specialist: it neutralizes a strategic oil depot for the Russian fleet, and “sends a strong signal».
Return blow for blow
While waiting for the launch of the counter-offensive, for the Ukrainians it is a matter of “to show that they are still active, and to support the morale of the country by saying that they are fighting back“. The Ukrainian strikes this Saturday come in the aftermath of several deadly bombings, including one that killed more than twenty people in the Ukrainian city of Uman.
Read alsoWhy Ukraine is keen to let it be known that preparations for its counter-offensive are ‘nearing completion’
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also warned, in a message on Telegram this Saturday, that “every attack, every evil act against [son] country and [son] people bring the terrorist state closer to failure and punishment“. This waiting phase, anticipates Cédric Mas, will see the multiplication of “information operationsfrom both sides, for more than purely tactical communication purposes.
The declarations of the Ukrainians on the imminence of their counter-offensive are part of this framework and make it possible to “win time“, estimates Édouard Jolly, researcher in theory of armed conflicts at the Institute of strategic research of the Military school (IRSEM), in an interview with the Figaro . During this time, the Ukrainians maintain, with these attacks, the uncertainty on the side of the enemy.
The tactic, explains Édouard Jolly, consists in “accustom the adversary to believe himself threatened, by putting him on permanent alert». «This is exactly what the Chinese army is doing in Taiwan by sending planes regularly so that, by dint of being on alert every day, the camp opposite can no longer distinguish a false alarm of a real attack.»
Intense artillery fire
On the front, to impress the enemy, the artillery fire redoubled in intensity. “The Russians have also resumed their hammering from the front, the testimonies we have tell us that it hits a lot“, reports Cédric Mas, according to whom, given the renewed activity, “Both Ukrainians and Russians had to receive ammunition».
This “strategic waiting phaseallows, according to the military historian, the two parties to prepare for this counter-offensive. This will depend in particular, he believes, “weather, ammunition stocks and their ability to surprise the Russians“. In the meantime, summarizes Cédric Mas, it is a question of not lowering his guard and maintaining the pressure: “It is a waiting phase, but certainly not a relaxation phase.»
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