By Roman Burko, http://burkonews.info
Over the past day the disposition of the ATO forces remained without significant changes. Terrorists have continued blowing up road bridges to delay the advance of the Ukrainian forces. In this context, a military expert of the “Inform Napalm” group recommends the ATO sabotage groups to adopt the same tactic. Since bridges are destroyed anyway by the militants, it seems logical to preempt them. This way, it becomes possible to fragment the terrorist groups, which will make it much easier to handle them. In addition, with the adoption of this tactical move, the terrorists will be unable to evade the strikes of the ATO forces. This could help solve the problem of moving the Ukrainian reserve troops toward Lysychansk.
The desire by some commanders to deliver premature reports of successes in liberating towns and cities harms the ATO instead of benefiting it. This both reduces the vigilance of the forces in the ATO area and negatively affects communication and advocacy activities, given that the local population turns to skepticism if the information does not correspond to reality. Therefore our expert psychologists recommend the officials to refrain from hasty reports and follow this rule: maintain the maximum objectivity and effectiveness. This applies to yesterday’s statements about the complete liberation of Lysychansk. In fact, the security sweep of the central part of the city was only completed by 12:15pm on July 25, 2014. As for the evening of the 24th, Ukrainian troops could only maintain foothold in the northern part of the city, while in the first half of Friday the positions of our forces were still being fired upon. It is possible that the militants are still in hiding on the outskirts, and they are preparing provocations or sabotage.
It should be noted that the ATO forces once again have found terrorist weapons arsenals supplied to the rebels from Russia. This time, a weapons storehouse was found in Lysychansk. It contained rocket-propelled grenades (RPG-18) “Mukha”, rocket infantry flamethrowers (RPO) “Shmel”, as well as 43 boxes of mortar shells and a large quantity of ammunition.
The situation with Lysychansk is similar to that of Avdiivka, which has been hastily added to the list of the liberated locations.
In addition, it has been noted that the terrorists, who set up the checkpoint at the rail crossing, have significantly improved their fortifications. They now have a dugout and an underground passage to the basement of the nearest nine story apartment building. Another less powerful checkpoint is located near the office of “New Mail”.
Today, terrorists were also shelling Andreevka and Lyubovka from the checkpoint in the hamlet of Shiroky (Donetsk Region).
Militants continued to accumulate their forces in the area of Pervomaisk – Stakhanov – Alchevsk – Perevalsk. They even moved a unit of the “Luhansk Army” there. Most likely, this is an attempt to maintain the connection with Lysychansk. The ATO forces should also be ready for a strike in a northerly direction, especially considering the rumors of the preparations for a counterattack against Syeverodonetsk.
Terrorist sabotage preparations in Kramatorsk can’t be ruled out. This is indirectly confirmed by the information about the increased drone activity in the area.
The ATO forces’ offensive on Gorlovka was marked by a small victory: terrorists left the township of Golmovsky, where they were threatened with encirclement, but the sweeping operation against militants in this area is not yet finished. Furthermore, the presence of a large group of terrorists in Debaltsevo shouldn’t be ignored, because it represents a potential threat to Ukrainian army units in Uglegorsk.
Terrorists began to regroup their forces and partially withdrew some groups from Donetsk and Luhansk. At the same time, the number of militants’ vehicles in the direction of Starobeshevsk and Illovaysk significantly increased. This is due to the attempts by the ATO forces to launch an attack on the Donetsk from the south.
Today the movement of a terrorist convoy was observed near Stanitsa Luhanskaya. Most likely, the militants received new reinforcements from the Russian Federation. At the same time, considering the size of the convoy, the ATO forces should have well entrenched positions at the southern checkpoints. According to our data from the front line, even though holding the positions is difficult, our guys are succeeding.
Thus, today, the ATO forces haven’t achieved any significant successes, remaining at the same advance positions as yesterday. The situation is complicated by the presence of a large number of terrorists disguised as civilians in the liberated territory. This slows down security sweeps in cities. At the same time, there has been constant shelling of Ukrainian troop positions in the border areas from the direction of Russia, with the involvement of journalists of the Russian propaganda channel “Life News”.
Today some disturbing information started coming from the northern border areas, where excessive activity of the Russian troops has been observed. The rumors of possible provocations in the regional centers of the central and western Ukraine were being actively spread.
In the area of ATO the militants are also planning terrorist attacks and sabotage. According to local residents in Krasny Luch and Anthratsyt, on July 25th the terrorists began to block roads. It’s been suggested, that these actions are a preparation for the movement of equipment. The locals point out that pro-Russian militants control an ammonite warehouse with about 200 tons of explosives. According to the eyewitness observations, terrorists are actively equipping this warehouse.
Due to constant reports of information leaks and betrayal among the security forces, it was good to see the news today that in the Donbas all police officers are now being subjected to polygraph tests. This information was reported by the Minister of Internal Affairs Arsen Avakov and disseminated by many media outlets. The full staff of Donetsk and Luhansk police has undergone lie detector testing. About 25% of the personnel submitted their resignations before the test.
In our opinion, polygraph test is exactly the procedure that should be carried out without exception with all representatives of law enforcement agencies in all regions of Ukraine, regardless of rank or status. The first step is the most difficult one, and we hope that this good example of large-scale cleansing of law enforcement will lead towards the implementation of new qualitative reforms of the entire enforcement apparatus.
Translated by Max Alginin
Français: Opération Anti-terroriste : Résumé du 25.07.14
Русский: АТО. Сводка за сутки 25.07.14
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