Ukrainian military reveals ‘hardest place to fight’

Urban populations currently present some of the greatest challenges for Ukrainian troops, according to a Facebook post from the Ukrainian Armed Forces Southern Operational Command.

“Dense urban development is the hardest place to fight, possibly the worst job for infantry,” the article read Wednesday. “And almost the only place where it is not artillery or tanks that will play a crucial role, but the skill of each gunner and the coordination of small groups of infantry.”

The post contained several photos of combat soldiers sweeping an abandoned building during a training exercise, a familiar sight since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The Russian-Ukrainian war was a prime example of the challenges of urban combat, military outlet Defense One reported, as both sides were pressured into weaponry and equipment that could be used in battles between military structures. great height and congested areas.

Other obstacles urban warfare poses include forcing troops to make “quick and decentralized” decisions and creating challenges for information management across ranks, the report reads. As Defense One also noted, urban combat creates a “labour-intensive” scene that relies on the skills of each soldier.

The Armed Forces of Ukraine wrote that training like the one depicted in their Facebook post is done “to ensure that at the crucial moment everyone worked perfectly and the task was completed without casualties.”

One of Ukraine’s worst-hit urban centers was the southern city of Kherson, the first major region to fall to Russian forces at the start of the 11-month war.

Although Russia ordered its troops to withdraw from the city in November 2022, a humiliating defeat for Russian President Vladimir Putin, Kherson has suffered some of the “most intense shelling” along its border with the Dnieper, according to British intelligence services.

Putin has also focused on Bakhmut in recent months, a town in the eastern region of Donetsk which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says is under “constant Russian attacks” aimed at “exhausting” Kyiv’s forces. .

Last week, Putin’s troops continued to “make small advances” around Bakhmut, the British Ministry of Defense reported, after Russia recently captured a nearby town, Soledar. On Monday, however, Russia had still not surrounded the industrial city, according to an update from the Institute for the Study of War.

According to the ISW, Ukrainian troops are “maintaining their group’s supply in Bakhmut despite constant Russian shelling of critical routes”, an indication that Kyiv forces are not threatened by Russian troops who may encircle the town of so early.

Newsweek contacted the Russian Ministry of Defense for comments.