You're reading: After Russia delivers battlefield defeats, Ukraine looks to shore up defenses

Ukrainian authorities say they will counter terrorist attacks all over the country and the military offense of Kremlin-backed insurgents, who defeated Ukrainian forces in the eastern Donbas region, regaining control of more territory and threatening to retake the entire Donetsk Oblast.

Ukrainian officials preferred, however, not to dwell on the army’s massive setbacks, including the loss of the ruined Donetsk Airport’s both terminals — the government’s last toehold in Donetsk — and politicians struck an upbeat tone in contrast to the battlefield realities.

Critics have blamed what they view as the General Staff’s incompetence for the defeats and accused President Petro Poroshenko of failing to appoint better generals.

The press service of the anti-terrorism operation was not available for comment, while the president’s press office declined to comment.

A high-ranking source close to the president accused an unnamed “blogger backed by a major business group” – an implicit reference to billionaire Ihor Kolomoisky’s Privat group – of launching a campaign against Poroshenko following the military setbacks. If generals are fired all the time, no one will be left to run the army, he added.

After a meeting with top security and military officials, Poroshenko said late on Jan. 22 that the Ukrainian army had been successfully rebuffing rebel attacks along the entire front line.

“The enemy has paid a high price for trying to attack our armed forces,” Poroshenko said after local insurgents backed by Russian troops took over much of Donetsk Airport.

On Jan. 23, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk reacted to the escalating war by demanding that governors to come up with a mobilization plan “in case there is a need to put the economy on a wartime footing.“

He was speaking at a meeting with governors in Kyiv on Jan. 23. Participants of the meeting also considered anti-terrorism policies.

Security Service of Ukraine head Valentyn Nalyvaychenko proposed introducing round-the-clock patrolling of bridges and railroads to prevent terrorist attacks. All the airports, ports and power plants will be guarded by police and the National Guard, he said.

“All the cities over the country must double the number of police patrol officers, so the people would know the government keeps the situation under control,” Yatsenyuk said.

Meanwhile, Oleksandr Turchynov, secretary of the National Security and Defense Council said that anti-terrorist centers should be set up in every oblast in order to face possible attacks.

The statements followed one of the bloodiest weeks for Ukraine since the Sept. 5 Minsk agreement, as the death toll reached at least 262 people – both servicemen and civilians – who had been killed over the last nine days, the United Nations estimates.

At least three Ukrainian servicemen have been killed and 50 have been injured in the war zone during the last 24 hours, Andriy Lysenko, a a government military spokesman said on Jan. 23.

He also said that three captured Ukrainian fighters were released by separatists. Earlier insurgents also gave to the authorities eight bodies of Ukrainian soldiers who had been killed at Donetsk Airport.

Ukraine’s military setbacks at Donetsk Airport have prompted a flurry of speculation on their causes.

Vyasheslav Tseluiko, an expert at the Center for Army, Conversion and Disarmament Studies, attributed the recent military setbacks to a lack of competence and experience in an army that has not been used for its intended purpose for over 20 years. “The army has been not a political tool but a political attribute like the flag and the coat of arms,” he said.

Tseluiko also said that the airport’s terminals were located in a difficult strategic position.

“It’s very hard to keep these buildings when there is no opportunity to retreat and counterattack,” he said. “There are no (Ukrainian) positions nearby, and lines of communications are stretched out.”

Ukrainian troops’ recent attempts to push Kremlin-backed rebels towards Donetsk proved unsuccessful because the military leadership did not utilize sufficient military resources for the operation, which would allow them to expand their zone of control in the airport area and the nearby village of Spartak, Tseluiko said.

The airport itself has little strategic value as long as locations surrounding it are controlled by Ukrainian troops. It cannot be used to deploy Russian military aircraft because they can be easily shelled from Ukrainian positions, Tseluiko said.

However, the airport’s terminals were useful because insurgents trying to attack them could easily be killed in the open field, he said.

A soldier of Ukraine’s 93th brigade who goes by the nom-de-guerre Agat and is currently fighting in the airport area has mixed feelings about the need to keep the Ukrainian positions there.

“(The airport) opens a good way to enter the city (of Donetsk),” he said by phone. “It also gives a good opportunity for our generals to get new stars on their shoulder straps. It is needed as a symbol but is this symbol worth so many people’s lives?”

The takeover of the airport’s new terminal earlier this week followed Ukrainian authorities’ reports that more and more Russian troops and weapons are crossing the border into Ukraine.

Tseluiko said that currently there was a “parity” between Ukrainian troops and Russian-backed insurgents, and they did not have enough resources to launch a large-scale offensive. But that will be possible if Russia sends even more troops and weapons to Donbas, he said.

Russian-backed insurgents seemed upbeat and promised to continue their offensive.

Alexander Zakharchenko, head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, said on Jan. 23 there would be no cease-fire anymore and pledged to launch an offensive up to the borders of the Donetsk Oblast. He also said that insurgents would not take Ukrainian troops prisoner from now on, apparently implying that they would be killed instead.

Meanwhile, more evidence of Russia’s involvement in the war emerged as a video of Chechen militants fighting at Donetsk Airport was released earlier this week. At the 25th second, the video shows a man with a Chechen flag on his military insignia. At the 46th second, you can hear “Allahu Akbar” (“God is great”).

Kyiv Post staff writer Oksana Grytsenko contributed to this report.

Kyiv Post staff writer Oleg Sukhov can be reached at [email protected]

Kyiv Post staff writer Olena Goncharova can be reached at [email protected]