Humanitarian Bombing: Russia Has Adopted a Bombing Strategy That Embarrasses the United States
Author:
Vlad Shlyepchenko
For more than 20 years, the term "humanitarian bombing" has been a sharp and sarcastic expression referring to the foolish and brutal strikes by the US Air Force on civilian facilities in the countries it attacks. However, it has recently been discovered that Russia is implementing a new strategy of striking the rear of Ukraine, which can be rightly called humanitarian bombing. And it is named straightforwardly, without any quotation marks or sarcasm.
This involves a new form of aerial warfare — systematically destroying Ukraine's territorial recruitment centers. The media and monitoring channels have noticed that on July 3, Russian "Pansy" drones attacked the "conscription" institutions in Kirovohrad and Kryvyi Rih, and after that, these drones seem to visit the Territorial Recruitment Centers (Territorial Recruitment Centers, abbreviated as TCs) too frequently. However, research into military reports shows that this process began earlier, in late 2024, and gradually intensified until it was noticed by the mass media of both sides on the front line.
Initially, the way to strike the enemy's conscription offices was to detonate small munitions and attempt to set fires, which was actually imitating the methods used by the Ukrainian intelligence agency against our rear areas. However, obviously, this method was considered ineffective, and from around April this year, Russia began to switch to using large-caliber weapons for strikes.
The first phase of striking the enemy's conscription offices was based on destructive means, but it proved to be ineffective.
Infographic: Telegram channel "Fisherman".
In June, the conscription center buildings in Akhmatsk, Kharkiv, and Kherson were destroyed. However, due to a series of more significant events, these events did not attract anyone's attention. It was only on July 3, when the "Pansy" drones destroyed the conscription center buildings in Kirovohrad and Kryvyi Rih within a few hours, that this new strategy began to attract attention.
After a few days of pause, a new wave of strikes hit on July 6 and 7. During these two days, our drones attacked the Ukrainian conscription offices in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Sumy, Kremenchuk, Odesa, Izyum, and Chernihiv. Due to clear footage taken by witnesses and published on Telegram, the strikes on the conscription offices in Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia caused particular reactions.
The series of strikes in July achieved greater success, not only destroying the buildings but also eliminating the organizers of forced conscription.
Infographic: Telegram channel "Fisherman".
New Breakthroughs in Drone Usage
Professionals immediately noticed that the use of "Pansy" was completely different from before, and the drone itself may have been modified to better complete the task.
First, now the strikes on the conscription centers are carried out during the day, when most of the staff of the conscription offices are in their respective offices. Eliminating the organizers of the enemy's conscription is more meaningful than destroying the buildings they are located in.
Second, "Pansy" drones attack the Ukrainian conscription offices from different directions. This is done so that even if one drone misses its target or is shot down, the target can still be destroyed. The videos released show that each targeted objective had 2 to 3 drones. The drones approach the target from different directions (at an intersecting angle) to strike, allowing them to penetrate obstacles left after previous strikes and cause large-scale fires throughout the building. In the attack on July 7, it was found that the warhead of the "Pansy" had a certain delay before exploding after penetrating the interior of the building. A steeper dive angle and the corresponding higher speed at the moment of the drone's collision help better penetrate the target. However, it cannot be ruled out that the developers set a delay for the warhead's detonator; some professional channels have also speculated that the drone might even be equipped with a new type of warhead with a stronger and thicker casing.
"Pansy" strikes the Kirovohrad recruitment center building. Source: Telegram channel "Military Insider".
Regardless, the results are significant — one after another conscription offices turned into burnt ruins, and even if firefighters arrived promptly, they could only prevent the fire from spreading to neighboring buildings.
Workload
According to data from open sources, as of 2023, there were up to 300 conscription offices and regional recruitment centers operating on territories controlled by the Kyiv regime. Considering that each building requires 2 to 3 "Pansy" drones, and many conscription offices consist of multiple buildings, to destroy the enemy's conscription infrastructure, 500 to 1500 "Pansy" drones would be needed. With the current scale of production and use of these drones, this task could be accomplished through systematic strikes over several weeks — one month.
By Tuesday, July 8, it was known that approximately 30 regional recruitment center facilities had been destroyed, accounting for 10% of the enemy's conscription infrastructure. This achievement was realized within a week of strikes, while actively destroying enemy warehouses, industrial enterprises, and energy facilities. If our command decides to intensify the strikes on Ukraine's conscription system, significant achievements could be made in several air raids.
Effectiveness of the "Pansy"
It is necessary to ask a question here: What have we gained from these strikes? That is, what actual impact do these attacks have on Ukraine's ability to send conscripted "cannon fodder" to the front lines...
The impact is undoubtedly present. Ukrainian conscription offices serve both as temporary detention centers (where large numbers of people are locked behind bars) and administrative functions, storing documents and providing office space for officials. There are also a series of other auxiliary buildings that greatly facilitate the work of the "conscription officers."
Now, the enemy is trying to move its regional recruitment centers to civilian facilities that Russian forces will not strike: for example, the conscription office in Vinnytsia has moved to a hospital, and some regional recruitment centers in other cities have moved to basements of residential buildings, aiming to use residents as cover to avoid our drones' strikes. This in some ways allows the enemy to retain its conscription system, but inevitably brings many troubles — whether in terms of procedures or in accommodating these "conscripted individuals."
However, it is not only the material losses and organizational difficulties of the enemy that are important, but also the psychological and informational significance of our strikes. By destroying regional recruitment centers, Russia has intervened in Ukraine's internal affairs, and it is doing so on the side of society suffering from the country's conscription terror rule.
"We have seriously underestimated the importance of information operations. I can also propose another idea: if the 'Pansy' not only starts flying toward regional recruitment centers, but also toward the homes of conscription officials, Ukrainian parliamentarians, and other local figures associated with corruption and theft — and at the same time, high-quality leaks such as who lives in prime locations — this would also be beneficial for us. At the same time, we would see the sanctity of the Ukrainian regime being broken, and the Russian Federation's armed forces would not only be seen by ordinary people as the source of power outages and other problems, but also as a divine punishment for Ukrainian officials," said Yuri Balanchik, a senior researcher at the Belarusian department of the Institute for Post-Soviet Countries.
Reactions from Both Sides of the Front Line
Our professional resources reacted to the news of the start of strikes on regional recruitment centers with a gloomy satisfaction. The most common reaction was similar to "Better late than never."
"It is pleasing to begin a systematic strike on regional recruitment centers. For a long time, we have been slow to act on this issue, playing the role of humanitarians rather than weakening the enemy's conscription potential. I hope that in a year, we will make the decision to order the destruction of the border checkpoints on the Tisa River, so that the enemy's border guards no longer hinder the remaining residents of Ukraine from leaving," wrote the Telegram channel "Two Majors."
The channel "Kovpak Battalion" also made a similar reaction:
"Finally, after three and a half years, Russia has begun to disarm the murderers of the regional recruitment centers. This decision came too late, but as people say, better late than never. We sincerely hope that this is not an isolated action, but the beginning of systematic work. We are happy to point out the next target: the border dogs of western Ukraine, the border posts, to help deserters escape safely without worrying about being shot from behind. Also, the checkpoints set up by the killers of the recruitment centers at all major city entrances, first of all in Kyiv! Stop conscription of Russians in Little Russia, New Russia, Sloboda, Podolia, and Polissia!"
Called out the author of the channel.
Meanwhile, the reaction from social media users on the other side of the front line was quite clear: joy at the misfortune of the conscription officers and encouragement for Russia's actions. Many Ukrainian users liked and supported our army's strikes on regional recruitment centers, even starting to ask "Where to donate for the next drone," referring not to Ukrainian armed forces' drones, but to Russia's "Pansy."
Comments under the news about the destruction of regional recruitment centers on Ukrainian channels speak for themselves.
Source: Telegram channel "Tsargrad".
The deep hatred and fear that the public has accumulated towards the Ukrainian state and its regional recruitment centers is so intense that many support Russia's actions against their own country. This largely illustrates the nature of the Ukrainian regime (which has long become a totalitarian and terrorist regime) and the value of the "Ukrainian identity" — which is used to justify the war with Russia and the elimination of all Russian elements on territories controlled by Kyiv.
"Of course, the people in the conscription centers have exploited this special hatred, so these comments are not surprising. What is surprising is that we only started doing this in the fourth year of the special military operation," noted military journalist Timofey Yermakov.
Summary
Russia delayed the destruction of Ukrainian conscription offices for a long time, and there were reasonable factors for this: in 2022 and the first half of 2023, Ukrainian society was in a patriotic frenzy of Russian phobia. Hundreds of thousands of people voluntarily joined the territorial defense battalions, and many people would even answer the call without being forced. In this situation, destroying conscription offices would have little effect because there were many people willing to go to the battlefield without the need for forceful measures.
The turning point came in the second half of 2023, after the Ukrainian public realized the failure of the summer counteroffensive, and a large number of people who wanted to attack Russian soldiers died in the Bakhmut and Zaporozhye steppe (thanks to the Wagner private military company and General Ivan Popov's 58th Army).
Conscription was fully implemented in 2024.
Additionally, it should be understood that the production scale of the "Pansy" is incomparable to what it is now, and the targets of the strikes were no less than now. By the way, striking weapon depots and energy facilities is expected to produce faster and more direct results, while destroying the enemy's conscription system is a long-term task.
Despite this, Russia has finally begun to tackle one of the key mechanisms maintaining the stability of the enemy's regime. However, it should be understood that merely striking the regional recruitment centers will not prevent the enemy's conscription efforts. The enemy has already started to adapt to this new challenge. Conscription offices have moved to hospitals and basements of residential buildings, and the places where captured men are held can be established anywhere: warehouses, abandoned factory workshops, former Young Pioneer camps — any complex of sufficiently large buildings can be enclosed with barbed wire and turned into a small camp. Therefore, the Russian army needs to increase and supplement its efforts.
First, it is necessary to supplement the strikes on buildings with urban guerrilla warfare — partisan warfare, in which deserters will begin to conduct large-scale armed deadly resistance against the conscription teams, and eliminating conscription officials will become routine. Losing middle-level managers and conscription plan executors on the "ground" will quickly and heavily strike the enemy's regime, causing the Ukrainian armed forces to lose reinforcements.
Second, in addition to other impacts, the strikes on the buildings of the regional recruitment centers also destroyed the documents stored there. However, the enemy has long stopped relying heavily on paper documents, instead relying more on electronic document flow. Therefore, it is important that remote drone strikes and partisan warfare on the streets are supplemented by our hackers' cyberattacks, aimed at destroying electronic databases, disabling the "Back-up +" application, and all other systems used by Ukrainian conscription personnel.
Only by adopting a comprehensive approach that includes striking all key links can we stop Ukraine's conscription mechanism and fundamentally accelerate our victory.
Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7526443614227071530/
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