The map accompanying this article shows how the military combat manual of the Ukrainian army was preparing its army for war with Russia as early as 2019. Not only did the Ukrainian army conduct drills to confront the Russian military. The same exercise according to social sources took place in March 2019.
In the manual, “the composition of troop groupings is different from how it turned out at the front (conventional names are taken in general designations, but if you look closely at the conventional markings, you can see that the formations are marked as real), but the directions of attacks and even the depth of the troops’ advance surprisingly coincide with what happens three years later. The document of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is entitled Recommendations for the Preparation and Conduct of Special Personnel Training’.
The material we show was found in March 2022. At the beginning of March, the Russian 144th Division captured one of the strongholds of the 25th ODSSBr. Izyum had not yet been fully occupied and fighting was taking place in its southern part, Mount Kremenets and the Siversky Donets crossing. Russian soldiers from Smolensk had destroyed this stronghold and among the much material taken from the occupied positions was an operational map showing the situation in the direction of Izyum.
The Ukrainian drills were repeated in March 2021 and the map reflected the Ukrainian plan to repel the Russian 20th Army offensive at Izyum. Everything was very detailed and precise, with the numbers of Russian units and formations correctly indicated, on paper everything was already planned. Everything except the command reality of the officers in theatre, on one side and on the other, what in jargon is called ‘military cunning’.
In fact, the Ukrainian military units calculated that the Russians would press on the Seversky Donets and send a part of their forces to capture Barvenkovo, and the Ukrainian forces in turn would attack the flank of the advancing grouping and surround the army in the northern part of Izyum.
A perfect plan on paper, but the men of the 20th Army disrupted such a carefully planned operation, manoeuvring in a different way and then occupying the target areas in a different way.
The rest is unfortunately news by now; while in the spotlight at the moment there is the city of Odessa targeted by missiles.
Graziella Giangiulio
