The Assault on Mariupol
Late in the afternoon of September 4th, the Novorossiya Armed Forces(“NAF”) started active operations in the outskirts of Mariupol. The general goals are obvious - take the city on September 5th, or at least a part of it. For this purpose, NAF assembled up to 5 thousand infantry and about 70 armored vehicles, plus several batteries of rocket artillery and D-30 howitzers. The NAF here have an overwhelming superiority in heavy weapons, especially tanks. The numerical advantage in infantry is about two - two and a half -fold. Therefore, in the light of a possible ceasefire tomorrow at 15-00, there will be a serious attempt to break through the junta defenses and enter the residential neighborhoods of Mariupol, which is scheduled either tonight or tomorrow morning.
So far, the two sides are already fighting and suffering losses - ours lost 2 tanks destroyed + 1 damaged, 3 trucks and up to 15 soldiers. Junta lost several IFVs and APCs and up to 30 infantry. Prospects for the assault will depend on whether the NAF will fight at night or postpone the decisive attack until morning. This evening’s activities look more like recon by combat so far. Of course, if the political situation was not affecting the war, it would be much more appropriate to carry out the assault gradually, using superior firepower. But I think the NAF hopes are based on the low morale of enemy infantry, which, after the previously sustained losses, is extremely unreliable in defense and starts to retreat under real pressure.
Apparently, the concentration of such a serious force by Mariupol is what prevented the NAF from more actively advancing in the area between Mariupol and Volnovaha, where the enemy had only light screening forces, which could be broken through to move freely to the west. But apparently political motives are now prevailing over military sensibilities, so if there are really prospects of "Big Transnistria" on the horizon, taking Mariupol is certainly important than continuing the offensive towards Zaporozhie and Dnepropetrovsk within the project of creating a "Larger Novorossiya" [out of the whole of south-eastern Ukraine].
Original article: http://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/1767689.html (in Russian)
This translation was graciously contributed by tatzhit.
