Russian reservists serving on the front lines in Ukraine have described being ordered to fight with shovels which can be greater than a century old, in line with British intelligence.
In its latest update Monday, the UK Ministry of Defense reported that late last month, Moscow’s soldiers were forced to assault Ukrainian positions “armed with only ‘firearms and shovels.’”
The ministry commented that the shovels likely discuss with the standard-issue MPL-50 entrenching tool used for hand-to-hand combat, which was designed in 1896, two years into Tsar Nicholas II’s doomed reign.
Based on the bulletin, the entrenching tool used for hand-to-hand combat has remained largely unchanged over the past 127 years, and “its continued use as a weapon highlights the brutal and low-tech fighting which has come to characterize much of the war.”
Certainly one of the mobilized reservists was quoted as saying that he was “neither physically nor psychologically” prepared to attack Ukrainian soldiers with the shovel, whose lethal qualities have turn out to be the stuff of military lore amongst Russian servicemen.
Based on British analysts, recent evidence suggests a rise in close combat in Ukraine, where Moscow’s forces have been trying for months to capture the important thing city of Bakhmut within the Donetsk region.
“This might be a results of the Russian command [continuing] to insist on offensive motion largely consisting of dismounted infantry, with less support from artillery fire because Russia is brief on munitions,” the update stated.
The intelligence assessment appears to substantiate claims made by Yevgeny Prigozhin, founding father of the mercenary Wagner Group leading the fight in Bakhmut, who again whined Monday that his fighters are in desperate need of ammunition.
Prigozhin boasted last week that his men had virtually encircled Bakhmut, but on Saturday he warned that the front would collapse should Wagner be forced to retreat.
Prigozhin, a catering mogul and shut ally of President Vladimir Putin, has accused officials on the Russian Ministry of Defense of “treason” for failing to send sufficient ammunition to his mercenaries — a claim that top military brass has vehemently denied.
A spokesman for Ukraine’s tenth assault brigade, Mykyta Shandyba, told Ukrainian television “it was clear” that Russian forces faced a shortage of ammunition that had limited their advances in Bakhmut.
But that has not stopped the enemy from stepping up attacks in recent days to try to interrupt through Ukraine’s lines.
Prior to now 24 hours, Ukrainian forces have repelled near 100 attacks within the Donbas region, in line with the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Volodymyr Nazarenko, a Ukrainian commander in Bakhmut, said there had been no order to retreat and “the defense is holding.”
“The situation in Bakhmut and around it’s utter hell, because it is on the whole eastern front,” Nazarenko said in a video posted on Telegram.
With Post wires
