Russia Ukraine Update Thread - part 2

a reply to: firerescue

Yeah, leaving the wounded to suffer and die will further lower their morale. It is a deliberate act of disloyalty by those in charge, at the expense of their subordinates. One wonders how much mistreatment the Russian rank and file will endure.

Cheers

Moscovite Rus claim Kievan Rus MRLS destroyed during failed Kievan Rus offensive against Kheson

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Moscovite Rus S-70 attack drone completed tests, soon to start serial production. Considering the Moscovite Rus and Kievan Rus war lasts many many years, we should be seeing these in combat soon. These are good at smashing artillery and anti ship missile trucks because of low RCS, long range, heavy punch.

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Moscovite Rus Alligator attack choppers in action against Kievan Rus. These are good at smashing artillery from a distance using missiles and rockets but they are manned and so pilots are at risk despite having ejection seats. But for now they will do.

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Moscovite Rus 203 mm howitzers in action with the help of thermal scope for correcting fire. These out range and out gun Kievan Rus 155 mm howitzers.

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A pretty good article from RFE with Gen. Wesley Clark. He pretty much says what many in this thread have been saying all along...

www.rferl.org...

Ukraine needs to be further reinforced. It has the fighting capacity, and the determination to force the Russians out; it does not have the means...

first of all, you have to defeat the Russian artillery. If you can defeat the Russian artillery right now, they'll never make a breakthrough...

But mostly it's artillery. Lots and lots and lots of artillery, with the ammunition; hundreds of rounds of artillery fired per artillery tube per day....

To be successful in rejecting Russia, we need much more. It's got to be expedited. And if we have an opportunity for Ukraine to kick Russia out of Ukraine, out of Donbas, and out of the southern part of Ukraine, that window is July and August. It will take Russia until December to mobilize significant forces. China won't be able to help much until Xi Jinping gets his third term. So, for now, there's a window of opportunity for Ukraine, if Ukraine moves, and if they get the materials that they need to move.

Russia has miscalculated when it thinks that the West is being weak. The West is resilient, it's strong... But it all comes together with incredible strength when challenged. This is the lesson that we want the world to understand....

Another reason why artillery has proven to be so deadly in this war is the terrain itself. The Donets Basin, known as the Donbas, is defined by rivers that feed into a spiderweb of tributaries and ravines, which are all very difficult for tanks to cross, said retired Army Col. David Glantz, a military historian and an expert on the Red Army during World War II.

Task and Purpose article about artillery in the war.

Cheers

The Ukrainian Armed Forces have reportedly begun a counterattack northeast of Kherson in an attempt to undercut Russia’s Southern Group of Forces.

Frontlines between Mykolaiv and Kherson in southern Ukraine have remained relatively stable for weeks despite heavy bombardment and airstrikes by both sides. Saturday’s new offensive reportedly put Ukrainian forces across the Inhulets River near Bilohirka, a village about 30-40 miles northeast of Kherson.

Source: OpenTopoMap

Link

Cheers

a reply to: GAOTU789


I finally got through the first first video, and wow, that's even better than you suggested!


Would anyone object to adding him as the thread's 'source' on 'Defense Economics'?



This is a subject that's always interested me, and I've seriously never seen anyone hit just about every angle imaginable with such a precise and common sense delivery.

I saw zero hints of deception, exaggeration or propaganda in that first video, in case anyone is concerned, but russian invasion supporters sure aren't going to think the brutal facts it contains are very pleasant.

a reply to: GAOTU789

Sounds delusional to me.

Throwing equipment at the problem will not turn the tide at this point. You need time to train crews. I read one of the US briefings that said only 130 UA personnel were trained to handle the M777s and 30 repair techs.
There is no way that was a full training. It was a crash course. There is already a video of one of those units falling under artillery fire in a region without cover for them to escape.

I heard that one of the new wonder weapons being pushed is the MLRS/HIMARS. It takes 4 weeks of training under ideal circumstances to make an "entry" level operator. The language barrier alone makes the conditions non-ideal.

That isn't even touching on the training needed to make a team that can work and integrates into the military effectively.

UA started out with similar or the same artillery as Russia and it hasn't stopped them. Throwing new equipment at them that they are not proficient with is not going to be as effective as what they originally had.

The Donbas region was fortified for 8 years with layered fighting positions in anticipation of this war. Some homes were even built with 4-foot thick walls. Once those fortifications are broken there is nothing similar for UA forces to fall back to.

The Dreizin Report talks about it in some detail. Go to 11:15 for that part.

a reply to: F2d5thCavv2


I tried to look into this a few hours ago, and from what I can tell so far, it looks like the Ukrainian unit involved is rather small and highly specialized, and they didn't appear to have any interest in fighting russians after crossing the river, and appear to be instead making a beeline for something fairly deep inside russian occupied territory.

My best guess at the moment, is that this is UA Special Forces, along with some Very Special Volunteers, on a suicide mission to destroy something specific and horrible hidden in the forrest there that russia had been hurling at Ukrainian troops North of Kherson and nearby villages lately.


God Speed Patriots!

God Speed.




This one is worth watching as closely as we can for at least a day or two.

Here is another article discussing the new Ukrainian offensive in the south.



Ukraine Has Launched Its Southern Counteroffensive

AUkrainian air force MiG-29 fighter shot down one of the Russian air force’s best jets—an Su-35—near Russian-occupied Kherson on Friday, according to the Ukrainian defense ministry.

The dramatic shoot-down, which reportedly took place as the Su-35 was chasing down Ukrainian attack planes, signaled an even more dramatic development on the ground.

Ukrainian army formations supported by American-made M-777 howitzers crossed the Inhulets River around the town of Davydiv Brid, 50 miles northeast of Kherson. The Russians fell back to a trio of towns a few miles to the southwest. Towns whose defenses the Ukrainian general staff described as “unfavorable.”

It’s possible Ukraine’s 5th Tank Brigade led the assault. That brigade with its 100 or so T-72 tanks for three months helped guard Odesa, Ukraine’s strategic port on the western Black Sea, from a possible amphibious assault.

But with much of the Russian Black Sea Fleet rusting on the seabed, Odesa isn’t in any immediate danger of a seaborne attack. Observers closely watched the 5th Tank, wondering when it might roll east to join the fighting around Kherson. That time finally may have come.

click link for article...

a reply to: PatriotGames4u

Not sure if it is related by I've seen chatter about taking the bridge linking Crimea to Russia out. There was even chatter about a countdown timer for taking the bridge out. Now I have not been able to find th3e youtube link in question and it might be just bs but I thought I would add the info for people to mull over.

a reply to: Xcathdra

On this map, Davydiv Brid is just NE of Bilohirka and located at the tip of the sharp angle formed by the purple-colored line (I think that may be the border between oblasts).


Source: OpenTopoMap

Cheers

t.me...

Destruction of the MLRS "Grad" in the Kherson direction. Most likely, these shots are connected with the recent attempt of the offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the direction of Kherson, which resulted in serious losses in people and materiel for Ukraine.

Over the past days, pro-Kyiv sources have been spreading reports about some mysterious ‘successful attack’ on positions of the Russian Army in Kherson Region. These reports claim that the attack resulted in ‘multiple successes’ of Kyiv’s forces against “hordes from the East”, especially in the area of Davidov Brod.

Nonetheless, the strange point is that all these successes of Kyiv resulted in no changes of the frontline in the area. On top of this, almost only photos that appeared from the area shows destroyed military equipment and dead soldiers of Kyiv.

In own turn, pro-Russian sources reported that Kyiv’s forces lost up to 20 pieces of military equipment, a Mi-8 helicopter and over 200 soldiers in the clashes.

It seems that the reality once again appeared to be different from MSM claims....

t.me...

southfront.org...

originally posted by: Xcathdra
a reply to: PatriotGames4u

Not sure if it is related by I've seen chatter about taking the bridge linking Crimea to Russia out. There was even chatter about a countdown timer for taking the bridge out. Now I have not been able to find th3e youtube link in question and it might be just bs but I thought I would add the info for people to mull over.

That's exactly what I suspected and what I was looking for evidence of, when I realized what they might be chasing.

There may well be multiple operations taking place in that area right now, and they might all be part of a single larger operation, or everything else may just be cover and deception for the Special Forces mission that I think I located.

Still way too early to be sure about anything there.

One thing seems certain though, something significant and fairly unexpected (timing) kicked off around 8+ hours ago.

Another article about the Southern offensive -

Ukraine Situation Report: Southern Counterattack Against Russian Forces Underway

The Ukrainian Armed Forces have reportedly begun a counterattack northeast of Kherson in an attempt to undercut Russia’s Southern Group of Forces.

Frontlines between Mykolaiv and Kherson in southern Ukraine have remained relatively stable for weeks despite heavy bombardment and airstrikes by both sides. Saturday’s new offensive reportedly put Ukrainian forces across the Inhulets River near Bilohirka, a village about 30-40 miles northeast of Kherson.

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A breakout from here could conceivably threaten Russian-held crossings over the lower Dnieper River at the Nova Kakhovka dam and the Antonovskiy Bridge on Kherson’s east side.

The Ukrainian Air Force claimed that amid the operation, a Ukrainian MiG-29 shot down a Russian Su-35S while providing fighter escort for a pair of Ukrainian Su-25s hitting targets in Kherson Oblast.

click link for article

a reply to: Xcathdra

A breakout from here could conceivably threaten Russian-held crossings over the lower Dnieper River at the Nova Kakhovka dam and the Antonovskiy Bridge on Kherson’s east side.

The bridges in Xcathdra's comment are marked with red asterisks on the map below.


Source: OpenTopoMap

Cheers

a reply to: Xcathdra

Kherson is the most defended area in all of Ukraine at the moment probably. It is going to be harder for Kievan Rus compared to the multiple failed Hama offensives in Syria made by rebels. I think it is better for Kievan Rus to focus on Donbas rather than Kherson which is much more difficult compared to Donbas.

a reply to: fuzz4262

uhm.. wrong.