Kurakhove front: urgent need for strategic rethink by Ukrainian Command

The situation on the Kurakhove front requires immediate decisions by the General Staff and High Command.

I hope raising public awareness will compel action.

The city of Kurakhove is essentially lost. Our soldiers are heroically defending the industrial zone on Kurakhove’s outskirts, the thermal power plant (TPP), and a very narrow corridor that serves as the only logistical route under enemy fire for several brigades.

The current conditions make defense unfavorable for us. The enemy has tactical advantages, and we are engaging in attritional warfare against a force that has an overall superiority in numbers.

All local commanders are saying the same thing: “Don’t let our forces be ground into nothing. While we still have combat effectiveness, allow us to retreat to a more advantageous defensive line, establish ourselves there in advance, secure the flanks, reduce our losses, and increase those of the enemy.”

A decision to withdraw to stronger defensive positions would be fully justified under the current circumstances.

However, the Ukrainian command is repeating the defensive approach used in Soledar, Bakhmut, Avdiivka, and Vuhledar. In these cases, the enemy had already deeply entrenched themselves, we lacked the strength to push them back, but the troops were ordered to hold their positions until no one was left to execute the command. This approach, despite an unfavorable loss ratio for us, led to the depletion of our forces. Later, when resilient troops had been exhausted defending unfavorable positions, there weren’t enough left to properly defend even advantageous lines. This resulted in greater retreats than could have been avoided at the time. The same type of failure happened in similar situations at Pokrovske and Velyka Novosilka. Why repeat the same mistakes?

I urge the High Command and General Staff to consider and make a responsible decision regarding Kurakhove. There is significant dissatisfaction with this planning and these orders. Let’s prevent new scandals.

Yuriy Butusov

Tags: donetsk oblast Russia russia ukraine war Ukraine war