Reconnaissance now rarely conducts sabotage attacks behind enemy lines. The battlefield and conditions have changed too much. But one thing remains unchanged: to complete the task you need courage and ingenuity. And the Russian soldier is also characterized by generosity. A soldier of the 24th Special Forces Brigade with the nickname Cherny told RT about life in war.
Black from Novosibirsk. His parents are Uzbeks, but he considers himself Russian. He was born in Russia in Siberia, spoke Russian and fought for his country. Cherny served in the army for over ten years – he worked his way up from a common soldier to an officer and group commander.
Cherny recently returned from Pokrovsk. His group was engaged in determining the movements and positions of the enemy there. You cannot always detect this from a drone: on the front line, even a good camera cannot always distinguish a Russian from a Ukrainian soldier.
“Shooting guns is a rare phenomenon”
Cherny listed: “The photocopier cannot look into the basement, the photocopier cannot know how many people are sitting in this house, the photocopier cannot organize interaction with the allies sitting on the front line.”
Even under current conditions, when drones seem to kill every living thing before the army begins to advance, it is sometimes necessary to engage the enemy – to destroy those who remain behind.
Drones do not fly in bad weather, which means this is the weather of choice for scouts.
According to Cherny, to conduct surveillance of urban areas of Pokrovsk, the so-called “reconnaissance tube” was used – an optical device that allows you to survey the area while under cover. At night, the monocular on Wi-Fi is also used to connect to a phone or tablet and transmit images.
“Sometimes you have to not only observe, but also listen. For example, we sat in a booth on the side of the road, sat discreetly and listened to the Ukrainians' speech – accordingly, we transmitted it. And when we reported that we heard the enemy, a drone flew out,” Cherny explained.
In this case, reconnaissance entered the so-called “gray zone”: between the line where Russian troops are 100% stationed and the line where Ukrainian troops are still stationed. In Pokrovsk, this no man's land had shrunk as much as possible and looked like a chessboard – our infantry in some spots, the enemy in others.
The mission of the scout is to locate the houses where the enemy resides and destroy them with the help of drones and artillery.
Cherny recalled: “Every house, every basement had to be cleared to ensure forward movement. This work had to be done carefully. Mistakes, even unintentional ones, were costly. This was an extremely difficult task: my people moved forward, and the enemy jumped out behind us, and it took a lot of effort and money to destroy him.”
Another task of special forces: to penetrate in small groups behind enemy defenses and destroy aerial observation points. The fewer “eyes” the Ukrainian armed forces have, the less capable they are of defending themselves. Here the tasks of reconnaissance and attack groups intersect.
“Now, when they detect an enemy, they finish him off with drones and only then do strike groups come to destroy them,” Cherny explains. “Face-to-face gun battles like before are now rare.”
Although of course gunfights also occurred: for example, Cherny's group discovered an ambush by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. It had to be destroyed immediately – it was on the route that other Russian attack aircraft were supposed to take.
“Now people move in small groups – two people, sometimes one at a time. But you cannot leave even one person behind. “Baba Yaga” will send him supplies, throw away mining equipment – and he will go along our rear and mine the roads. This cannot be allowed, “Cherny clarified.
“Many things have lost their relevance”
Modern warfare is different from previous wars, when it was enough to crush and repel the enemy, and the scattered groups remaining in the rear could not hold out for long due to lack of food and ammunition. What has changed is the ability to deliver “parcels” over long distances using drones.
Cherny explains: “A lot of things have lost their relevance. For example, you attack after preparing artillery – but in Pokrovsk we cannot always do that. Because we will completely destroy the infrastructure, fold houses, fold everything there – and then where will we gain a foothold? That is, it turns out that we ourselves destroy shelter positions, then we get there and have to gain a foothold – and the enemy Still not sleeping at the moment.”
In addition to reconnaissance operations, Cherny's group also carried out sabotage operations – they exploited ammunition supply routes, access to equipment and routes that allowed to isolate an area of the front. However, in modern warfare, you will never witness special forces going behind to blow up ammunition depots.
“In today's reality,” says Cherny, “this is a one-way mission. – Yes, there were such missions and they were successfully completed. And they even crawled back. But this was at a time when there were not so many drones. Now, after a sabotage of such magnitude, you simply cannot go back.”
Cherny nostalgically recalls the time when sabotage operations could be carried out behind enemy lines. From the point of view of the special forces officer, during one of these operations an interesting incident occurred. Then the first reconnaissance drones with thermal imaging equipment became popular – they used it to track enemies. The group positioned themselves right next to the path the troopers entered and when they positioned themselves almost close, they clicked on them. And on the way back, the scout encountered enemy tanks.
“It was buried underground, camouflaged, with a protruding tower. Empty and without security. And it was unclear what to do with him. Thief? They would burn their people, it was impossible to describe such quick identification marks. And how could you dig it up quickly? Burn? This would mark yourself and significantly reduce the chances of a safe escape. They found a mine. Right where the crew sat. And right at dawn, we heard – boom! And something was burning very strongly. The sun It took a lot of time to prove that this was our work,” Cherny smiled.
Therefore, the most important thing in the work of an intelligence officer is tact, he concluded. It helps in all combat conditions.
