The new material published by the Ukrainian Witness project features Dmytro Kukharchuk, commander of the 2nd Assault Battalion of the 3rd Brigade. He is one of those who led the recent operation to liberate Andriyivka. The fighter told us how it all went down.
"It was difficult to enter Andriyivka and surround it. It was my battalion that surrounded the village," Dmytro recalls. "We made a manoeuvre that confused the Russians, they did not know where their artillery was supposed to fire. Was it difficult? Of course it was. Offensive operations are always more intense than defensive ones, they require more careful planning."
According to classical military theory, for a successful offensive, the attacking side must outnumber the defenders three to one. And when it comes to storming a settlement, the ratio should be five to one. The Ukrainian soldiers managed to take Andriyivka while being outnumbered.
"We did not act linearly. We did not involve three or five times as many people in the assault, there was no need for that," says Slip. This way we can involve fewer resources and fewer soldiers. We have to protect our personnel, it is our gene pool."
"We did not set a goal to take Andriyivka," says Dmytro, "Our goal is to advance as far as possible. To reach the 1991 borders, and then see how it goes.”