Sergei Melnik (Vinnitsia, Ukraine, 45 years old) is the paradigm of the generation of men between the ages of 40 and 50 who is leading the defense of Ukraine. They are generals like him and his direct superiors: the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Valeri Zaluzhni (49 years old); the commander of the Army, Oleksandr Sirski (57 years old); and President Volodímir Zelenski (45 years old). Younger than the authoritarian elites leading the invasion from Russia, charisma and proximity to the reality of war are qualities they want to highlight. If Zelensky visits frontline positions a few kilometers from enemy troops, Russian President Vladimir Putin meets commanders at a base 150 kilometers from the front line. The same goes for Melnik: no Russian general has been seen like him in the same trenches under artillery fire.
Melnik – commander of the Kharkov region, in the east, a border province with Russia – confesses that the Russian invasion was not expected (despite the fact that others, such as Zaluzhni, took it for granted). He admits that 15 years ago he was one of those who believed that a war with Russia was unimaginable and that there was no need to reinforce the Ukrainian army. Everything changed in 2014 with the conflict in Donbas and with the annexation of Crimea by Moscow. The general believes that the threat will not disappear as long as Russian citizens do not understand that they are also victims “of a form of terrorist government.” And he adds: “We must isolate Russia so that the Russians understand that they are also victims of this terrorism. Only the Russians can change Russia in a democratic way, that’s when the war ends.”
He lives with his wife and daughter in Kharkov, the second largest city in Ukraine, 30 kilometers from Russia, despite the fact that his head has a high price for the enemy. He is a Doctor of Law and has gone down in the history of his country for having defended the city against the siege of the invader between February and April 2022, and for having participated in the counteroffensive last summer, which expelled the Russians from the province.
The military official spoke to EL PAÍS last Thursday in an interview lasting more than two hours in the private area of a central restaurant in Kharkov. The establishment seemed closed from the outside, but inside, meetings and secrets occupied the tables. Escorted by four soldiers, the brigadier general, whose code name is Marsel, by which he is known by the general public, specifies that during the 2022 siege he had some 20,000 men under his command. From those months he remembers multiple moments. One of the most notable was the interrogation of the pilot of a downed SU-35 fighter. He was a high-ranking officer from the Russian base in Voronezh. Thanks to that prisoner, he understood that the enemy had a high number of useless military equipment: the pilot confessed that of the 24 combat planes of his regiment, only 12 were operational.
The pilot also made it clear to him that the goal of the invasion was to disintegrate the Ukrainian state. “I replied that the enemy has yet to be born that can completely destroy our nation. And that, for people like him, the only future that awaits them is to rot in our land”. Melnik reveals that the officer was exchanged for 200 Ukrainian prisoners.
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“When we attack, the enemy will flee to tell the hell that awaited him
The military man is just as confident in the success of the counteroffensive that the Ukrainian General Staff is planning for the end of spring: “Each of us is like a cog in a chain, each one knows the moment and the place where must act. I can’t provide details, but when we attack, the enemy’s reaction will be to flee so they can tell what hell awaits them.” “A normal person will not resist until he is the last to wait for death, especially in the face of a massive and precise attack,” adds the commanding general in Kharkov.
Russia has built 800 kilometers of fortifications since last summer to protect the territories occupied in the invasion. Melnik estimates that the superiority of fire and troops that will be needed to break through the Russian defenses is four to six times that of the enemy. This data confirms the titanic challenge facing the Ukrainian troops, because military theory indicates that for an attacking army to succeed, it must have at least a three to one superiority over the defending army.
Russian tactics have not changed in the 14-month invasion, the general says: “First they send cannon fodder, then artillery fire, and finally assault troops. The only thing that has changed is that they care less and less about the lives of their loved ones.” Melnik points to another important advantage, in his opinion, over the rival: the knowledge that Commander-in-Chief Zaluzhni has of his nemesisGeneral Valeri Gerasimov, chief of the Russian General Staff, one of the most prominent military theorists in the world: “He has read everything Gerasimov has written, and he can identify his next steps, his tactics and way of fighting.”
The current calm worries me a little. In Chechnya, the Russians withdrew in a first phase, like here
The general fears that Russia wants to replicate in Ukraine the strategy it carried out in the wars in Chechnya: “The current calm worries me a little [el ejército ruso está concentrando su fuerza en la provincia de Donetsk]. In Chechnya they entered in the same way to withdraw in a first phase, as here. And they regrouped two years later to attack again. They introduced a network of collaborators and took over the land”.
He admits that Ukraine needs more troops, but not only men, but also ammunition for artillery and tanks. But soldiers on the front lines need more frequent rotations in the face of an enemy that has more resources: “The problem is that we have a lack of people and equipment. Because those who are professional soldiers, hardened in patriotism, are already exhausted, injured or recovering. Or they have died. That is why we invite people without military experience and we train them so that they have the adequate preparation to face the enemy”. “Our international partners are also not supporting, training combat units at their bases,” the general added. In Ukraine there are voices warning that, in addition to the current recruitment, a covert compulsory mass mobilization may take place. But Melnik rejects it: “There is always a lack of men, but we are not Russia, which carries out covert mobilizations in violation of international law.”
Melnik is convinced that the Ukrainian Armed Forces have enough weapons to coordinate the spring attack, but concedes that the more and more modern weapons they receive from their international allies, the better. The general stressed several times during the interview that the priority is to receive anti-aircraft defense systems. Not only to eliminate the threat of Russian planes and helicopters at the front, but also to protect Ukrainian cities.
The military officer in charge smiles with a hint of malice when asked about the bombardments that his artillery is carrying out in Belgorod, the neighboring Russian province. Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory cause misgivings among international allies. The same president of the United States, Joe Biden, has reiterated that he does not plan to supply Kiev with long-range weapons that can be used to strike on Russian soil. Melnik assures that they do not use foreign-supplied missiles or shells to attack positions in Russia, but insists that Kharkov and Ukraine need a security perimeter of at least 100 kilometers: “We do not attack in areas where civilians live. If we detect a threat from Russia that is 3.5 kilometers from our border, we will destroy it. But we do not use weapons from our international partners.” Energy infrastructures in the same city of Belgorod have been destroyed in attacks.
Ukraine is betting on building its own drone production industry. Unmanned aerial vehicles, says Melnik, are the great revolution of the war in Ukraine in terms of military theory, they are used on all fronts and for multiple uses: “It is the safest option to hit troops and technical assets of the enemy. A drone is a piece of plastic with a bomb that flies exactly at a target. A decade ago we watched movies about it, today it is the reality. Drone warfare is incredible because it is reaching unexpected heights.”
Drones must also be used to destroy Russian bombers at Russian military airfields, Melnik repeats. And this, he assures, Ukraine wants to do not only to defend its territory, but also for the rest of Europe: “Their planes are currently taking off calmly , they fire their long-range missiles, they return to their bases and the pilots are so calm, sure that nothing will happen to them. We have to stand up to this arbitrariness. Because in the same way that they launch their missiles on kyiv or Kharkov, they can do it against the rest of Europe. We have to stop them.”
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