Chonhar crossing had 1,500 mines when it should have had 200,000 for proper defence, Ukrainian general asserts
Pravda Ukraine
Lieutenant General Serhii Naiev, former Commander of the Joint Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, believes that in order to prevent Russian troops breaking through the border from the temporarily occupied Crimea in 2022 legal decisions authorising the deployment of the Armed Forces and the introduction of martial law should have been made.
Source: Naiev in an interview with Ukrainska Pravda
Quote: “In 2014, after the temporary occupation of Crimea, the Ukrainian troops were deployed to various regions, including Chernihiv, Sumy and Kharkiv oblasts, as well as to Crimea. These measures were taken to repel the aggression.
In the Crimean direction, our forces dug some trenches and deployed a few brigades. They mined five bridges on the isthmuses: two on the Arabat Spit, rigged with improvised explosive devices, and three at Chonhar – two for vehicles and one railway bridge. A little more than 1,500 mines were laid there. For proper defence, around 200,000 mines should have been deployed.”
Details: Naiev emphasised that he was referring to 2014. The brigades stationed near Crimea were later redeployed to Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, leaving only small units in the south. Naiev said that Ukraine’s military leadership requested the introduction of at least an anti-terrorist operation regime in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts to provide a legal framework for stationing troops.
Quote: “Imagine a military commander asking a property owner to place artillery on their land. The owner would naturally ask, ‘On what legal basis?’
There were no legal provisions allowing this. The authorities refused to establish any such regimes in these regions.”
Regarding the widely debated question, “Who de-mined Chonhar?”, Naiev explained:
Quote: “This question lacks logic. The area was under the control of the Operational Command South, with a specific battalion responsible for the Chonhar crossings. There were soldiers responsible for blowing up the bridges if necessary. The night before the invasion, when I warned commanders of a potential attack, I instructed the commander on that front to prepare the bridges for detonation.
However, these bridges were to be destroyed by human beings, not robots, under bombardment and missile fire.”
More details: When asked what could have been done differently in the south, Naiev suggested that decisions to deploy the Armed Forces and impose martial law should have been made in previous years.
He indicated that, as in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, extensive defensive measures should have been conducted in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts, and that the military command could then have secured the trenches and mine placement – not thousands, but hundreds of thousands of mines.
Mobilising additional forces before the full-scale invasion would have been crucial. Two additional territorial defence brigades, as well as reserve and mechanised tank brigades provided by the General Staff, should have been deployed in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts, Naiev added.
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