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ADAPTIVE INDOMITABLE UKRAINE's Flexible Defensive Zones Saving Lives of their Soldiers for THAT Day [1]

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Date: 2025-07-08

For many of us who hold the cause of Ukraine dear, the periodic unhappy news of Ukraine performing yet another one of their now well-practiced pull backs from an encircled pocket hits hard. Like the news today that Ukrainian troops have successfully pulled out of the village of Rivnopil(Southwestern Donetsk oblast) without a single casualty. It may be one of those lessons/skills learned earlier on at a painful price but the Ukrainians have truly become extremely adept at performing this maneuver … one of the most difficult tactical movements in war … a fighting retrograde:

Ukrainian troops withdraw safely from encircled area near Rivnopil – DeepState On Tuesday, July 8, soldiers from Ukraine’s 31st Separate Mechanized Brigade successfully broke out of a long-besieged position north of Rivnopil without casualties According to the OSINT project DeepState, troops from the brigade’s 1st Mechanized Battalion withdrew from a frontline area that had been surrounded on three sides. global.espreso.tv/...

But still our hearts can’t help asking when will these retreats end? When will it end will it end will it end? For the answer to that question let us look to what Ukraine is doing on the Kursk-Sumy-Kharkiv line against the reported 50,000 plus Russian forces ranged against them. As is their wont, the American right wing media, in this case the Wall Street Journal, made it a point to trumpet the doom facing Ukraine in light of the estimated 3:1 disadvantage they face in troop strength in Sumy. Have these people ever sat in a history class? Lexington, Concord and Yorktown … all glorious victories for the American revolutionary fighters who were vastly outnumbered by the powerful forces of the British crown in each instance.

Outnumbered? Yes. But not out-spirited or out-fought. The Ukrainians have taken the fight to the Russians in Sumy and in the past few days have stalled the advance of the mighty Russian host arrayed against them. And now the Ukrainians, with the stalwart Khartia Corps in the vanguard are pushing the Russians back, decimating their logistics, ravaging their troop concentrations, capturing prisoners and decapitating the upper echelons of the in-theater Russian command:

Ukrainian forces halt Russian advance in Sumy region, says army chief www.bbc.com/...

To be sure the Russian forces are still moving into new locations along the Sumy-Kharkiv line capturing some villages as they maneuver to get closer to the city of Sumy to take it under tube artillery range. But the Ukrainians are returning the favor by pushing the Russians back and liberating settlements along the front:

Ukrainian forces push Russian army away from Sumy, General Staff says Ukrainian forces have stabilized the situation in Sumy Oblast and pushed the Russian army further away from Sumy, the region's capital, Ukraine's General Staff reported on June 30. Ukrainian troops advanced near the village of Oleksiivka, located less than 30 kilometers (18 miles) from the city of Sumy, and liberated the village of Andriivka, which had been captured by Russia in early June, the statement read. In the meantime, Ukraine also stopped the Russian advance along the Yunakivka-Yablunivka-Novomykolayivka-Oleksiivka-Kindrativka line and the border with Russia near Kursk Oblast, according to the General Staff. kyivindependent.com/...

Ukraine Strikes Back: Troops Liberate Village in Sumy, Push Forward in Pokrovsk Ukrainians have reportedly liberated the village of Andriivka in the Sumy region and made gains near Pokrovsk. Independent confirmations of the liberation are still pending. “Special attention is focused on the Pokrovsk direction and our Sumy region, especially the border areas,” Zelensky said. “We are managing to push Russian forces out. I thank all our units for these tangible results.” He specifically praised the 225th Separate Assault Regiment for offensive operations in the Sumy region, including the liberation of Andriivka. Zelensky also commended the 425th Separate Assault Regiment for its progress in the Pokrovsk direction, and highlighted the 1st Separate Assault Regiment and the 82nd Separate Airborne Assault Brigade for their successes in battles across the Donetsk region. He highlighted additional advances in the Kupyansk direction (Kharkiv region), crediting the 3rd Assault Brigade. Zelensky also mentioned ongoing operations inside Russian territory, particularly in Kursk Oblast, and thanked the 33rd Separate Assault Regiment, 47th Separate Mechanized Brigade, and 103rd Separate Territorial Defense Brigade for their bravery. www.kyivpost.com/…

It is worth noting that Ukraine’s much lauded elite 47th “Magura” Brigade is still fighting in Kursk even though their former Commander, Oleksandr Shyrshyn, resigned, sharply criticizing Ukraine's high command for some of their decisions or in his words “idiotic orders and losses” in the Kursk campaign. Shyrshyn’s concerns and frustrations are emblematic of the conundrum which Ukraine has faced from the very beginning of Russia’s invasion … what to do about Russia’s overwhelming advantage in manpower which it throws relentlessly against the Ukrainian lines in well over 100 assaults each day.

Russia would like nothing better than for Ukraine to go mano a mano on the field throwing waves of their relatively precious few soldiers at Russia’s seemingly endless pool of barely trained “mobiki” in a contest of “meat assaults”. Ukraine neither intends nor wishes to do any such thing … no matter how many square meters of empty Eastern and Southern Ukrainian steppe land or Piatykhatky (5 house village) Russia trumpets out as “captured” by their forces. Strategically and tactically, the Ukrainians would stand, fight and exact as much of a high toll as they can from the Russians. And if the need arises that they have to pull back and or fall back onto their prepared defenses, they do so to protect and conserve the lives of their soldiers. Ukraine will not throw away the lives of her soldiers just to hold a few square meters of land. No siree! No “meat assaults” for Ukraine. And yet Ukraine is still steadfastly holding the line against the much ballyhooed “world’s number 2 army”. Since early 2014 and the initial invasion onslaught of 2022 in which Russian red quickly flowed over 18% of Ukrainian territory, Russia has managed to eke out only an additional 1-2% of Ukraine countryside … at the unimaginably humongous price of over 1 million casualties, a hollowed out military and an economy that is teetering on the brink of implosion.

So how is Ukraine doing it on the battle field? By carefully and strategically creating “Kill Zones” all along the 1,200 mile battle trace. Any Russian armor or soldier entering the zone will very likely not live to tell the tale. David Axe of Forbes Magazine had this to say about it:

Ukrainian Drones Patrol A 16-Mile Kill Zone. ‘If You Simply Drive On Any Roads, You Risk Your Life,’ One Russian Blogger Warned.

Russian jamming could blunt the Ukrainian drone edge, however. Deploying millions of small explosive drones every month, Ukrainian forces have created a kill zone extending 16 miles behind the front line of Russia’s wider war on Ukraine. , air-defense vehicles and—perhaps most importantly, supply lines—the drones have made life along the front line a nightmare for Russian troops. Relentlessly striking troop formations, artillery , air-defense vehicles and—perhaps most importantly, supply lines—the drones have made life along the front line a nightmare for Russian troops. . “In principle, this has been the case for a year, since the spring of 2024, but now the frequency of attacks is much higher for the enemy.” “If you simply drive on any roads, you risk your life,” one Russian blogger wrote . “In principle, this has been the case for a year, since the spring of 2024, but now the frequency of attacks is much higher for the enemy.” www.forbes.com/...

The online site, Militarny, also has an in depth write up on the concept and application of “Kill Zones”:

The Kill Zone of Modern Warfare: Size and Structure, Control and Means of Destruction, Survival and Shifting the Lines The Kill Zone Theory According to Field Manual (FM) 3-90: Tactics, a kill zone is a space where concentrated fire from an ambush is directed at the enemy. Typically, this involves short bursts of intense direct fire. In a broader combat context, direct and indirect fire may be sustained over a broader area and for a longer period. “A year ago, the grey zone stretched roughly 500 metres to 2 kilometres. Now it has expanded to 5–6 kilometres, and in some directions, up to 7 kilometres,” says Yuriy “Lys”, a senior sergeant in the unmanned systems battalion of the 24th Mechanised Brigade. This expansion, he explains, is the result of a dramatic rise in unmanned aerial vehicles constantly monitoring and attacking in the area. “At any given moment, there are around 50 drones in the air — both reconnaissance and strike, ours and theirs,” he notes. militarnyi.com/…

To be sure the Russians have also adopted this tactic(“ours and theirs”) which explains much about why the battle lines in this war have now generally become relatively static … anything that moves into the zone gets got(as they say in the urban streets). But an invader has a clock whilst the one whose land has been invaded has the time ... as one Taliban commander once said about the centuries long invasion of his homeland starting as long ago as with Alexander the Great(aka “Iskander”) and most recently the United States of America. In most cases the cost of the invasion and subsequent occupation becomes too much and the invader eventually leaves, no matter how militarily powerful they may be. Putin and Russia are on the clock. Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock … as their army and economy drains away with each passing day. To stay or not to stay becomes the invader’s conundrum.

As former Army General and current President of the Czech Republic, Petr Pavel, said in so many words today ... in the end Russia will not be able to hold on to the occupied lands in Ukraine. They will return to Ukraine:

Russia “burdened” with occupied territories, Ukraine could retake them — Czech president President Petr Pavel of Czech Republic believes that while Ukraine faces challenges, the occupied territories remain a political burden for Russia and may eventually return to Kyiv's control global.espreso.tv/...

It is a very interesting perspective. And one that I believe the leaders of Ukraine may have in the backs of their minds as they forged their overall war strategy of Active and Elastic Defense against the Russian invasion. Putin can have his regular propaganda “victories” of announcing the capture of a Piatykhatky here and there but in the end the Newtonian 2nd Law of Motion could be applied to the fall of nations whether great or small… the acceleration of a free-falling object is independent of the mass of the object. The tectonic forces which have been set in train in Russia by Vladimir Putin’s ill-fated Special Military Operation will surely see to that.

And ADAPTIVE INDOMITABLE UKRAINE will not needlessly and wantonly throw away on the battlefield the flower of its youthful population or mindlessly stand in the way as Russia with overweening hubris hurls itself into the Ukrainian kill zones and accelerates towards the day of its own down fall. Ukraine will save the lives of her soldiers for that day … lives which will be much needed to build the coming new great prosperous democratic Ukraine.

SLAVA UKRAINI ! PEREMOHA(Victory) !!

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