It’s Too Late To Stop Russia's Drones From Cutting Off Pokrovsk
Front-line FPV operators still strangling Ukrainian supply routes
The Ukrainian Main Intelligence Directorate recently targeted Russia’s best drone group
The Russian Rubicon group gained fame, or infamy, when it cut off the Ukrainian troops fighting in western Russia’s Kursk Oblast back in February
Today, Rubicon is repeating its strategy around Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad in eastern Ukraine: cutting off Ukrainian supply lines
The Ukrainian drone raid occurred too late to defeat Rubicon ... or save Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad
Russia’s elite Rubicon drone group is strangling the Ukrainian troops in Pokrovsk and neighboring Myrnohrad. So the Ukrainian Main Intelligence Directorate, the HUR, is trying to strangle Rubicon—by striking at its operators in one of their rear bases.
But the Ukrainian effort is too little, too late.
A recent HUR drone raid on an alleged Rubicon base near Avdiivka, 40 km southeast of Pokrovsk, is a desperate effort to delay the likely inevitable outcome of the yearlong Russian siege of Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk Oblast.
Potentially thousands of Ukrainians are still fighting in and just south of the settlements, but they’re nearly cut off by a Russian force that outnumbers them five to one. The Russian armed forces “have intensified efforts to encircle the Pokrovsk–Myrnohrad agglomeration,” the Conflict Intelligence Team noted.
“Currently, only about 3 km remain between the converging segments of the contested area north of Pokrovsk and southwest of Krasnyi Lyman—a narrow corridor through which Ukrainian troops could potentially exit the operational encirclement,” CIT warned.
Disrupting one Russian drone group might buy the Ukrainians more time to escape Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad. But it’s unlikely to save the settlements.
The HUR launched its attack drones at the Rubicon base under the cover of darkness on or before Tuesday. Footage from the long-range, first-person-view drones shows at least one of them slamming into a two-story building the HUR claimed housed Rubicon operators.
It’s unclear how much damage the raid inflicted. And it probably doesn’t matter very much. The real damage along the Pokrovsk-Myrnohrad axis is being inflicted by Rubicon teams flying short-range first-person-view drones whose operators are on the front line ... not behind it near Avdiivka.
Read the rest at Euromaidan Press.
