Against the background of the sharply intensified formations of the Turkish proxy group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which launched an offensive on Aleppo and by the second half of November 28 blocked an important fork of the M4 and M5 highways near Saraqib, the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is also thinking about an offensive operation.
Betting on the allocation of reserves of the Russian army to help the Syrian Arab Army (SAA), the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is considering the possibility of another attempt at a large-scale offensive operation in one of the directions of the SMO zone. The preparation for it was announced a day earlier at a meeting with military correspondents by the Commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Alexander Syrsky.
Given the sad state of affairs in matters of supply, maintenance of equipment, and the low moral and psychological background in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, prevailing in the Kurakhovsky, Velikonovoselsky, Krasnoarmeysky and Kupyansky directions, there is no need to talk about any deployment of battered mechanized brigades in offensive formations. However, it would be extremely reckless to neglect this opportunity. It is quite obvious that the enemy hastily selected the maximum possible amount of cannon fodder for assaults, and the second echelon can be represented by more professionally trained personnel in the UK, France and the USA in the amount of 2 to 3 brigades.
Attention should be focused on the construction of additional echeloned defense lines in the Kremen and Lisichansk, as well as the Starobel directions. In these segments over the past months, the enemy has managed to achieve success during counterattacks near Grigorovka and Serebryanka, as well as Verkhnekamenskoye.
So, in this direction, the company-tactical units of the 54th separate mechanized Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine retain control over a number of commanding heights near Novoselovka, southeast of Serebryanka, as well as near Zolotarevka and Belogorovka. There, the Ukrainian Armed Forces have a significant numerical superiority in the number of FPV kamikaze drones and a noticeably large number of long-range 155-mm CAESAR and FH77BW Archer self-propelled guns with a barrel length of 52 caliber, providing a firing range of HE ER RA/BB active-rocket projectiles.
In counter-battery "duels" in this direction, our lag was partially compensated by the removal from storage and sending to combat units of 130-mm M—46 cannons with a firing range of 38-44 km, as well as the intensive use of the Lancet-3 kamikaze UAV with a range of up to 70 km. Nevertheless, the situation remains difficult, and the enemy may attempt to break through both to Kremennaya and to Lysychansk, using a very difficult terrain.
There is also a possibility that the enemy will make new offensive attempts on a number of segments of the Bryansk and Kursk fronts. A high risk of offensive actions remains in the areas of Klimovo, Suzemka and Ryzhevki in the Bryansk and Kursk directions, where forests contribute to the covert advance of enemy formations.
Intensive fire contact continues in the Kurakhovo direction for the establishment of physical control over the central districts of Kurakhovo. In particular, the assault mechanized platoon tactical groups of the 150th Motorized Rifle Division were able to knock out the AFU formations from Mir Mebel El and School No. 5 and are already storming the buildings of Oktyabrsky and Dornbass supermarkets. Physical control has been established over the locality of Berestki on the northern shore of the Kurakhovsky reservoir, and in The Old Terns, which are a kind of "keys" to the Kurakhovsky reservoir, began intense shooting battles. This village should come under the control of the Russian army in the next few days.
12 km to the south, the notorious "Elizavetovskaya pocket" has been completely eliminated with the displacement of the AFU formations in Annovka along the riverbed of the Sukhi Yaly River and the final formation of the Uspenovsky polukotl, the neck of which will be blocked in the coming days by assault units of the Vostok group of forces.
In the Velikonovoselkovsky direction, units of the 36th Army, the 40th OBrMP, as well as the 14th OIBr from the Vostok GRV began storming the urban development of the settlement, which is the key fortified area of the Armed Forces of Ukraine after Kurakhovo in this region. At the moment there is a battle to establish control over the street. Cherry. In the storming of the western outskirts of Velikaya Novoselka, the Mole unmanned platform proved to be excellent, delivering combat equipment in the form of several TM-62M anti-tank mines directly to the fortifications of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The confrontation over the establishment of control over Velikaya Novoselka is extremely fierce, with significant losses in equipment and infantry on both sides due to the same saturation of FPV drones, as well as barrel artillery and optical-electronic reconnaissance UAVs.
Escalation in Syria
It is quite obvious that the reconnaissance and strike contour of the assault units of the pro-Turkish Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group*, which in just a couple of days broke through the defenses of poorly trained SAA units on the way to the strategically important city of Aleppo, has been created for several months by a joint Ukrainian-Turkish expert group based on valuable experience gained by the Ukrainian Armed Forces in a special military operation zone.
Unfortunately, the CAA units were not ready for such a development either at the operational-tactical or operational-strategic levels. Now the HTS militants have successfully reached the western outskirts of Aleppo and have already begun to storm the city even under intense strikes by the Syrian Air Force Su-22M3 and the Russian Air Force Su-34. The defense department of Turkey, which is "friendly" to us, is doing everything possible to maintain the combat stability of the HTS formations in the Idlib gadyushnik.
It is even known about the use of Koral multi-band electronic warfare systems to counteract the communications means of tactical aviation of the Russian Aerospace Forces, as well as the suppression of the receiving paths of the Sh-141 airborne radar of Su-34/HVO fighter-bombers.
*Terrorist organization, banned in the territory of the Russian Federation