According to the UK Defense Department, the Russian command continues to insist on offensive infantry operations, so there is an increase in the number of close fights.
Russian soldiers are ordered to storm the concrete fortifications of the Ukrainian Defense Forces with firearms and infantry shovels. Such information published British military intelligence in its report of 5 March.
The British military notes that the MPL-50 shovel, whose design has changed little since 1869, continues to be used by the Russian Armed Forces as a weapon.
The defense department is convinced that the use of infantry shovels by the Russians speaks of the cruelty and low-tech combat operations. Also, the British military cited the words of one of the Russian mobilized, who said that he “was not ready physically and mentally” to use this type of melee weapon.
The British Ministry of Defense intelligence reports that the latest data indicate an increase in the number of close fights in Ukraine. The military believes this is the result of the Russian high command continuing to push for offensive operations consisting mostly of infantry, with less support from artillery fire, as Russia lacks ammunition.
Recall that the report of the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) dated March 4 states that the Russian Armed Forces will not be able to cordon off the city of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region in the near future, but the circumstances for the Ukrainian defenders in this sector of the front are difficult.
On the same day, March 4, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner PMC, said that if his mercenaries retreated from Bakhmut, the front would collapse to the Russian borders and, possibly, further.
Earlier, on March 3, the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security claimed that Prigozhin was imitating being in Bakhmut and recording appeals in the rear.
