Azov has announced that it is conducting fire control operations against Russian logistics near Mariupol
The Azov unit has released a video showing Russian military equipment being destroyed in the Mariupol area and has stated that it has established fire control over the roads around Donetsk.
New developments have been reported on the front line. Azov has officially released footage showing numerous hits on enemy equipment in the Mariupol area. Prior to this, the same unit had announced that it was maintaining fire control over the roads around Donetsk.
It seems that, for the first time, massive strikes more than 120 km deep into enemy territory are being carried out not by a special forces unit hunting down Russian generals, air defence systems, missile systems and other high-value weapons. Rather, it is a frontline corps carrying out a more routine, yet in reality far deadlier for the enemy’s ground forces, procedure – namely, logistics control.
Logistics control, by and large, is control of the land. Preventing the enemy from using lorries and passenger vehicles to travel a hundred kilometres deep into their territory will mean: no tank, gun, lorry carrying infantry or ammunition can move freely until it poses a threat to our troops.
We may not realise just how significant and geopolitically important this is. Against the backdrop of the spectacular explosions in Tuapse and Ust-Luga, it does not stand out so clearly. But this is yet another, at the very least equally significant, sign of the Russian Federation’s slide towards defeat.
A 100-km kill zone means there is no point in the territorial seizures of the so-called ‘special military operation’. As is well known, one of the ‘realistic’ scenarios for the Russians to put the war on hold is to secure the creation of a land corridor to Crimea. To that Crimea which is associated with the Russians’ most successful operation of this century, a pure prize, the brightest moment of Putinism for Putinists.
All the subsequent horrific losses since 2022 can be justified by Moscow on the grounds that they have strengthened the link with the peninsula, supposedly attaching it firmly to the body of the empire not with a flimsy bridge, but with a strip of solid land. Really, which of the Russian populace cares about the exact number of areas in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions under Russian control? But now Crimea is no longer surrounded by hostile elements – that is, water and Ukrainians – but is Russian for all time, because there is a wide steppe route leading to it.
But the Azov video shows us that things are no longer like that at all. That completely halting any ground logistics, taking out diesel locomotives, bombing carriages and burning any vehicle is a perfectly realistic task. Azov consists of several thousand drone operators who will patrol every road from the Luhansk region to the Sea of Azov around the clock. For them, this is a personal matter.
And is it just Azov? This technology is already available, or will soon be available, to our allies who are ‘looking’ towards the sea from areas near Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions. The task of getting to Crimea will soon become yet another form of Russian roulette.
And this is just one example. In essence, the entire part of Ukraine’s territory not under our control will sooner or later become a no-go zone for Russians. Such is the logic of technological progress. Donetsk and Luhansk are soon to be surrounded – not by our infantry and tanks, but by our unmanned aerial vehicles.
Looking ahead, I’ll answer the question: will the Russians be able to make a symmetrical move and similarly block Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and Kharkiv? The answer is: theoretically yes, but right now it will certainly be ten times harder and ten times more expensive for them. So there are many reasons right now that I’d rather not discuss.
Meanwhile, Girkin-Strelkov, the star of Russia’s ‘patriotic’ Telegram channels, despite being in prison, has got it all right regarding the build-up of our air capabilities. And he is predicting our airborne assault on Crimea. He claims that the Ukrainians already have sufficient capabilities to organise a ‘drone umbrella’ over the landing zone.
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