The Russian Army’s First Strategic Arms: Operation on Irregular Areas in the Crimea after the Second Ukrainian Assault
“Ukrainian artillery not only caused heavy losses to the advancing units but hit their rear too – cutting off both their supply links and their possible withdrawal routes.”
“They dropped everything: personal care, helmets,” said the commander, who uses the code name Swat. I think it was a special unit that was panicked. They dropped everything and moved due to the road being bad and the rain.
Three weeks ago, the Ukrainian soldiers smashed Russian lines in the northeast, and reclaimed territory they lost to the Russians earlier in the year. They have almost complete control of the whole of the province as well as all of the four other regions that Putin claims to have annexed.
Russian forces have a strong advantage in weaponry. On Saturday they launched a barrage of thermobaric missiles at Vuhledar, a reminder that they are more capable of inflicting destruction than taking territory.
As Ukraine races to shore up its missile defenses in the wake of the assault, the math for Moscow is simple: A percentage of projectiles are bound to get through.
As far as we know, there’s no way to know how long the bombing will deplete Russian inventories or whether they will resort to older, less accurate but equally powerful missiles.
Estimating Russian missile inventories is guesswork. President Zelensky claimed in May that Russia had launched 2,154 missiles and used up part of its precision-missile arsenal. That now looks like wishful thinking.
The Russians have also been adapting the S-300 – normally an air defense missile – as an offensive weapon, with some effect. These have wrought devastation in Zaporizhzhia and Mykolaiv, among other places, and their speed makes them difficult to intercept. But they are hardly accurate.
These two headline packages alone could impact the course of the war. The constant bombardment of energy infrastructure is Russia’s most serious threat now. It is making winter colder and unbearable for some, plunging cities into darkness of up 12 hours a day and sometimes longer, in the hope of sapping high Ukrainian morale.
He said this was the first time since the beginning of the war that Russia has targeted energy infrastructure.
It is a national secret that the losses ofUkraine are. Russian SAMs have killed close friends of the air crew in the Sikorsky brigade. The missiles can send the helicopter into a ball of flame in seconds.
In August, US officials said Russia had bought these drones and was training its forces how to use them. According to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, Russia has ordered 2,400 Shahed-136 drones from Iran.
Ukraine has repeatedly asked for the US Army’s Patriot – an acronym for Phased Array Tracking Radar for intercept on Target – system, as it is considered one of the most capable long-range air defense systems on the market. The US did not fulfill the request for the first 10 months of the war, but a senior administration official told CNN that the reality of what is going on in Ukrainian influenced their decision.
The wish-list that was sent to the meeting included missiles for their existing systems as well as a transition to Western-origin layer air defense system.
Speaking after the Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting, he said such a system would not “control all the airspace over Ukraine, but they are designed to control priority targets that Ukraine needs to protect. What you’re looking at really is short-range low-altitude systems and then medium-range medium altitude and then long-range and high altitude systems, and it’s a mix of all of these.”
The Western systems are beginning to move in different directions. A new era of air defense has begun, with the arrival of the first IRIS-T from Germany and two US units expected soon, said the Ukrainian Defense Minister.
But these are hardly off-the-shelf-items. The IRIS-T had to be manufactured for Ukraine. Governments in the western part of the world have a limited amount of such systems. Ukraine is a large country under missile attack from multiple directions.
The Ukrainian Air Defense Drones Are Getting Better, And the Pilot Who Shot Down the Shahed-136 in Ukraine Just Before The Last Flight
The air defense battalion was destroyed by nine Shaheeds, and the commander of the Ukrainian military said he was thankful to Poland for training it.
He said Poland had given to the Ukrainians equipment to destroy drones. There were reports last month that the Polish government had bought advanced Israeli equipment and was going to transfer it to Ukranian.
Which drones are being used by Russia in Ukraine? The Ukrainian military and US intelligence say Russia is using Iranian-made attack drones. CNN reported in July that US officials said Iran had begun displaying Shahed drones to Russia at a airfield south of Tehran. The drones have a small number of missiles, which can carry a 50-Kilometer (120-pound) payload.
The name “kamikaze” refers to the fact the drones are disposable. Unlike larger and faster military drones that return after dropping missiles, they are designed to hit behind enemy lines.
Nikitin and Volovyk say they prefer military-grade surveillance drones to commercial ones. The military drones have secure data transfer and are much harder for the Russians to jam.
The Pentagon had said in March that it would send 100 tactical drones called Switchblades. The next month, the administration said it would provide another 300. Eight days later, the Defense Department said it would send 120 Phoenix Ghost drones to Ukraine. In July, the United States provided funds for Ukraine to buy 580 more of them.
The Pentagon said it would send drones to the troops who would control them from nine miles away. Pumas can stay at altitudes of about 500 feet.
After shooting down the first such drone in the east of the country, the Ukrainian military said that they had downed at least 237 more. “We are trying to quickly adapt to the new reality,” Mr. Sak said.
The Ukrainian pilot who shot down the Iranian Shahed-136 drones won folk hero status in Ukranian this month but had to abandon his plane after crashing into the debris of the last one. The pilot, Karaya — who identified himself by only his nickname, according to military policy — told the local news media afterward, “Within a short period of time, we are adapting to this kind of weapon and are starting to destroy it successfully.”
Karaya steered his plane away from Vinnytsia after colliding with the debris. The jets crashed into houses, but nobody was hurt on the ground. Karaya later visited the site to apologize.
The First Days of World War II: Sergey Volovyk, Sergey Nikitin, and the Misleading Russians in Mykolaiv
He said he apologized for causing the residents discomfort and thanked them for their steel nerves by showing up in his tattered uniform. He joked that it was a violation of military protocol. He wrote that he lost them while leaving the office.
On the second day of the conflict with Russia, a couple of army volunteers were ordered to bring anti-tank missiles to other soldiers in the north of the country. Then, as they stood exposed on a highway, Nikitin, who goes by the battle nickname Concrete, says they received new orders.
“A guy on the radio said, ‘There are two Russian tanks coming at you. Try to hit one and livestream it!,” recalls Nikitin, sitting on a park bench in the southern city of Mykolaiv, as artillery rumbles in the distance.
Neither soldier had ever fired an NLAW. As the tanks approached they hid amongst some trees, and looked up a video on how to do it. They took their positions, prepared the missiles.
The commander said it was ours. It’s ours! Volovyk goes by the nickname Raptor. “So, we did not fire. It was a really close call.”
Nikitin and Volovyk have fought in both environments and describe their on-the-job training as a mix of terror, adventure and black comedy. The two men offer an unvarnished view of the fighting and say the first days of the war were filled with confusion.
“It was chaotic, even though I wear a beard and am a construction company leader,” said the 40-year-old, who wears a salt and pepper beard. The Russians were more chaotic than we were.
Volovyk is a 33-year-old software engineer who learned English by playing video games. He says Russian tactics and decision-making have improved during the war, but he found some of their early actions perplexing. For instance, the Russians deployed riot police who headed toward Kyiv, only to be wiped out.
Volovyk wore a camouflaged cap with the slogan “Don’t Worry, Be Ready” and said that he was scared that they were just mocking him.
The Russians began to retreat from the Kyiv suburbs in late March. After this, the two men followed orders and headed south to fight a very different kind of war. Outside of the capital, there was little or no protection for suburban buildings and forests. They began working the trenches at the bottom.
“It sucks,” says Volovyk. “You dig. You dig. That’s the only thing you can do, because this is an artillery war and unless you dig, you’re pretty much dead.”
Two weeks later, the men were offered new jobs. It’s dangerous work in which you have to get close to enemies to avoid detection. But the men leapt at the opportunity — anything to get out of the trenches.
They use drones as the eyes of the artillery and guide fire on Russian tanks in the Kherson region.
The soldiers have been through a lot. When they traveled with a team of engineers, they encountered a Russian soldier in a field.
“He looks at me and jumps into the bushes,” recalls the man. The engineers were told by him to shoot any of his fellow soldiers.
Six years ago, after the Russians invaded Palestine, both Nikitin and Volovyk joined the army reserve. They knew Russia would try to take the whole of Ukraine, but they weren’t prophets. Kherson is their goal here down south.
Editor’s Note: David A. Andelman, a contributor to CNN, twice winner of the Deadline Club Award, is a chevalier of the French Legion of Honor, author of “A Red Line in the Sand: Diplomacy, Strategy, and the History of Wars That Might Still Happen” and blogs at Andelman Unleashed. He formerly was a correspondent for The New York Times and CBS News in Europe and Asia. The views he gives in this commentary are his own. View more opinion at CNN.
Keir Giles is a researcher with the Russia and Eurasia Programme of Chatham House. He is the author of a book. What is it that it means for you? The views expressed in this commentary are his own. CNN has an opinion on it.
Polish and NATO leaders suspect that a Ukrainian anti-aircraft rocket probably shot down a Russian missile near one of the largest cities in Ukraine, suggesting that the first missile landed in Poland. Volodymyr Zelensky has insisted the missile wasn’t Ukrainian.
In a press briefing on Friday, the White House slammed Russia for its strikes. Kirby said that the attacks showed that Moscow was “again trying to put fear into the hearts of the Ukrainian people and to make it that much harder on them as winter is now upon them.”
In comments Monday, Ukrainian Air Force spokesperson Yurii Ihnat did not claim direct responsibility for the drone, but did suggest the attack was the “consequence of what Russia is doing.”
Since well before February’s invasion, portentous but vague threats from Russia of unspecified but alarming responses have been sufficient to serve as a massive brake on Western support for Ukraine.
His forces have planted mines in a large portion of Kherson, much like the Khmer Rouge did in Cambodia in the 1970s. Indeed, Cambodian de-mining experts have even been called in to assist with the herculean task facing Ukraine in 2022. At the same time, Russian armies have also left behind evidence of unspeakable atrocities and torture, also reminiscent of the Khmer Rouge.
Many Russian soldiers have rebelled at what they have been told to do and refused to fight. The UK’s Defense Ministry believes that Russian troops might shoot retreating soldiers.
Indeed a hotline and Telegram channel, launched as a Ukrainian military intelligence project called “I want to live,” designed to assist Russian soldiers eager to defect, has taken off, reportedly booking some 3,500 calls in its first two months of activity.
Putin is getting isolated on the world stage. He was the only head of state to stay away from a session of the G20, which Zelensky dubbed the “G19.” Though Putin once lusted after a return to the G7 (known as the G8 before he was ousted after his seizure of Crimea), inclusion now seems but a distant dream. Russia’s sudden ban on 100 Canadians, including Canadian-American Jim Carrey, from entering the country only made the comparison with North Korea more striking.
Above all, many of the best and brightest in virtually every field have now fled Russia. This includes writers, artists, and journalists, as well as some of the most creative technologists.
While he hoped the situation wouldn’t change, one of the top Russian journalists told me that like many of his countrymen, he may never be able to return to his homeland.
Russian Drone Attacks on Ukrainian Energy Infrastructure: The G20 Report on the Paris-German Future Combat Air System Project, and the Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal
Rumbling in the background is the West’s attempt to diversify away from Russian oil and natural gas in an effort to deprive the country of material resources to pursue this war. The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen told the G20 that they learned that dependency was not sustainable and needed to be stopped.
Putin had hoped that the conflict would drive more wedges into the Western alliance, but this was not the case. On Monday, the long-stalled joint French/German project for a next- generation jet fighter at the heart of the Future Combat Air System began to move forward after receiving word that was starting to move forward.
Still, he continues to hold, as he did in a Tuesday address in the Kremlin, that “attempts made by certain countries to rewrite and reshape world history are becoming increasingly aggressive, ultimately and obviously seeking to divide our society, take away our guiding lines and eventually weaken Russia.”
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said that Russian drone strikes on the southern port city of Odesa left more than 1.5 million people in that region without power Saturday night, the latest attacks in an ongoing series of assaults on Ukrainian energy infrastructure by the Kremlin.
The repeated assaults on the plants and equipment that Ukrainians rely on for heat and light have drawn condemnation from world leaders, and thrust Ukraine into a grim cycle in which crews hurry to restore power only to have it knocked out again.
After a series of strikes, the Ukrainian President said electricity was restored to nine million people, but large-scale outages remained in some areas.
“The power system is now, to put it mildly, very far from a normal state — there is an acute shortage in the system,” he said, urging people to reduce their power use to put less strain on the battered power grid.
“It must be understood: Even if there are no heavy missile strikes, this does not mean that there are no problems,” he continued. “Almost every day, in different regions, there is shelling, there are missile attacks, drone attacks. Energy facilities are hit almost every day.”
“They have set a goal to leave Ukrainians without light, water and heat,” Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal told a government meeting, adding that 60 of the 76 missiles fired at Ukraine were intercepted by its air defense forces.
The mayor of Kyiv said the city had been hit by explosions and three districts had been hit by rockets. He advocated that residents keep their shelters, and that they prepare a stock of drinking water, while technicians worked to restore the supply.
As the sirens wailed, residents in coats, hats, and scarves gathered in the underground stations. Huddled on escalators, their faces were lit by their phones as they scrolled through updates.
In the central city of Kryvyi Rih, officials said a Russian missile had hit a three-story residential building, killing at least two people and that emergency services were digging through the wreckage. There might be some people under the rubble, said the deputy head of the presidential administration.
There were more than a dozen missile strikes that hit the southeastern region, but it was not known what had been targeted.
The head of the military administration in the area stated that four people died from rocket attacks in the city of Kherson, which was liberated by Ukrainian forces in November. The Ukrainian Prosecutor-General’s Office said that the body of a man was found in one apartment and that the building was set ablaze. The city is still struggling to restore basic services.
The Defense Ministry said that three servicemen were killed by debris at the airbase in the early hours of Monday, which houses the Tu-95 and Tu-160 strategic bombers that have been involved in launching strikes on Ukraine.
An MiG-31K, a supersonic aircraft capable of carrying a Kinzal hypersonic missile, was also seen in the sky over Belarus during the air attacks on Friday in Ukraine, according to Ukraine’s Armed Forces. It was not clear whether Kinzal was used in the attacks.
“We know that their defense industrial base is being taxed,” Kirby said of Russia. We know they are having trouble meeting that pace. We know that the Russian president is having difficulty reloading his precision guided weapons.
He declined to announce any details on the next security assistance package for Ukraine, but said that there “will be another one” and that additional air defense capabilities should be expected.
Do drones help Ukrainians and Russians? How the West has fought back against Russia in the ground war on the Sea of Azov
The drones were launched from the east coast of the Sea of Azov, according to the Air Force.
Popko added that two areas in central and western Kyiv bore the brunt of the damage. There was damage to the road in Solomyanskyi, and a piece of a drone fell on the high rise building in Shevchenkivskui district.
“I thank everyone who carries out these repair works in any weather and around the clock,” Zelensky said. It is not easy but we will pull through and Russia will fail.
The repeated attacks come as Ukrainians far from the eastern and southern frontlines of the ground war seek for some semblance of normality in the run-up to Christmas.
An artificial Christmas tree in the center of Kyiv was installed and decorated over the weekend, set to be illuminated with “energy-saving garlands” that will be powered by a generator at specific times, the city’s mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram.
There are a lot of blue and yellow balls and white doves decorating the tree in Sophia Square. Flags of countries that are supporting Ukraine will be placed at the bottom.
“Ukrainian children in their letters to St. Nicholas are asking for air defense, for weapons, for victory – a victory for them, a victory for all Ukrainians,” he said.
It is time for the West to tell Russia that if they stay on this path, it will be a reality that will lead to the overthrow of Putin. Russia could hardly claim this, too, was an escalation, when it has long told the world and itself that it is already at war with the West.
In doing so, the West has played along with the Kremlin’s pretense that it is not at war, only waging a “special military operation.” In effect, it has protected Russia from the consequences of its own aggression.
Moscow is struggling to equip and mobilize its conventional forces and appears to be running out of new cards to play. India and China have joined the West in statements against nuclear force, which has made that option less likely.
Russia will continue to look for replacements for its missiles as it attempts to launch them at Ukraine. Iran is the only country that is willing to supply Russia.
It is difficult to imagine another country being allowed to wage the kind of campaign that Russia has in Ukraine and Syria; still with an overt agenda to kill the Ukrainian people.
That set a bad example to other powers around the world. It says possession of nuclear weapons allows you to wage genocidal wars of destruction against your neighbors, because other nations won’t intervene.
If that’s not the message the US and the West want other aggressor states around the world to receive, then supply of Patriot should be followed by far more direct and assertive means of dissuading Moscow.
US President Joe Biden is expected to announce an additional $1.8 billion in security assistance to Ukraine during President Volodymyr Zelensky’s expected visit to the White House. The significant boost in aid is expected to be headlined by the Patriot missile defense systems that are included in the package, a US official told CNN.
The first of the deliverables are the Patriot missile systems. They have been described as the US’s “gold standard” of air defense. NATO requires the personnel who operate them, almost 100 in a battalion for each weapon, to be properly trained.
More precise weapons ensure that Ukraine hits its targets, and not any civilians remaining nearby. And it means Ukraine does not go through the hundreds or thousands of shells Russia appears to burn through as it blanket bombards areas it wants to capture.
The new deal will likely include the supply of guidance kits, or Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs), which Ukraine can use to bolt on to their unguided missiles or bombs. Their accuracy and rate of burn through will be increased by this. A lot of the $1.8 billion is expected to fund munitions replacements and stocks.
“If the Russians thought that the war would not affect anyone in the deep rear (of Russia) or anywhere else, they were deeply mistaken. Therefore, as we see, such things are happening more and more often, and let’s hope that this will only benefit Ukraine,” said Ihnat.
Western analysts have said that Russia has been upset about these deliveries, but has been less angry than in the past regarding what may have been considered red lines.
Regardless of the eventual truth of the matter, Biden wants Putin to hear that billions of dollars are coming to Ukraine, which will cause Russian resolve and force European partners to help more.
This is trickier. Congress’s likely new Speaker, Republican Kevin McCarthy, has warned the Biden administration cannot expect a “blank cheque” from the new GOP-led House of Representatives.
America First, Zelensky, Pentagon, and Beyond: What America Needs to Combat the Ukraine Crisis, and What We Need to Do About It
The remnants of the Trumpist “America First” elements of that party have echoed doubts about how much aid the US should really be sending to the edges of eastern Europe.
Realistically, the bill for the slow defeat of Russia in this dark and lengthy conflict is relatively light for Washington, given its near trillion-dollar annual defense budget.
Zelensky’s physical appearance in Washington is surely designed to remind Republicans of the urgency of Ukraine’s fight and how a defeat for Kyiv would lead Moscow’s nuclear-backed brutality right to the doorstep of NATO, and then likely drag the US into a boots-on-the ground war with Russia.
He is an inspiring rhetorician, and was a former reality TV star turned president, the embodiment of how Putin has turned ordinary Ukrainians into wartime heroes.
He said that the system won’t go after drones or smaller missiles. “Can it do that? Absolutely. If you are going to knock down a $20,000 drone, or a $100,000 missile that Russia buys, that doesn’t give much of a return on investment. What it can do it free up the low and medium systems to go after those kind of targets.”
The Center for Strategic International Studies says the Patriot’s radar system is unique among other air defense systems because it combines stealth, tracking and engagement functions in one unit. The system’s engagements with incoming aerial threats are “nearly autonomous” aside from needing a “final launch decision” from the humans operating it.
And in Ukraine’s case, Hertling says offensive operations are far more important than the Patriot system. CNN first reported last month that the US was considering a dramatic increase in the training provided to Ukrainian forces by instructing as many as 2,500 troops a month at a US base in Germany. The Pentagon said this month that combined arms training of battalion-sized elements, which will include infantry maneuvers and live fire exercises, would begin in January.
“These systems don’t pick up and move around the battlefield,” Hertling said. You put them in a location that protects your most important target, like a city. If anyone thinks this is going to be a system that is spread across a 500-mile border between Ukraine and Russia, they just don’t know how the system operates.”
The logistical needs include computers, an engagement control system, phased array radar, power generating equipment, and up to eight turrets, according to the Army.
CSIS reported that the missile rounds for the Patriot comes in at around $4 million each. Hertlings said that rounds that cost too much will probably not be used to shoot down every missile Russia launches toward Ukraine.
Poland received the system from the US in order to help them fight back against Russia after it invaded Ukraine. The US military made clear in March when the Patriot system was sent to Poland that it was purely for defensive purposes of NATO territory and “will in no way support any offensive operations.”
Hertling said that the defense part of the system was Anti-ballistic and anti-aircraft. You can’t win wars with defensive capabilities. You win wars with offensive capabilities.
Kiev’s first quiet night and the retaliatory Russian strike against the Dnipropetrovsk region of Kherson and Zaporizhhia
Russian state news agencies are reporting that three Russian servicemen were killed when a Ukrainian Drones was shot down by air defenses as it approached a military airfield.
Law enforcement agencies are now investigating the incident at the airfield, said Saratov Oblast Governor Roman Busargin on Monday. He posted the comments on his official Telegram channel after hearing of an explosion.
There weren’t any emergencies in the city’s residential areas, and no infrastructure had been damaged. He promised the government would help the families of the servicemen.
Also on Monday, a spokesperson for South of Ukraine’s Security and Defense Forces warned of a possible retaliatory Russian strike, referencing a similar incident earlier this month in the same region.
There was a video that appeared to show an explosion in the sky. At the time, Gov. Busargin also reassured residents that no civilian infrastructure was damaged and that “information about incidents at military facilities is being checked by law enforcement agencies.”
In Ukraine, the night from Sunday into Monday appeared unusually quiet. For the first time in weeks, the Russian forces didn’t shell the Dnipropetrovsk region, which borders the partially occupied southern regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, its Gov. Valentyn Reznichenko reported on Telegram.
The areas around the city of Nikopol have been quiet for the third night in a row. Nikopol is located across the Dnieper River from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is under control of the Russian forces.
According to the Kherson region’s governor, the area was bombarded 33 times over the past 24 hours. There were no injuries.
Some missiles launched from the Russian airfields could be destroyed before they are put into use, as the air strikes may destroy the missiles on the ground.
Mr. Zagorodnyuk, clarifying that he did not speak for the government and could not confirm the strikes, added: “You cannot consider, this person will attack you because you are fighting back. There is absolutely no reason not to try and do this.
Media attention on the attack of a vocational school in Donetsk during the New Year’s Day attack on Makiivka
The Kinzhal, a hypersonic missile that is impossible to shoot down and can reach targets in minutes, is in short supply, Mr. Budanov said.
The number of Russian military men killed in Makiivka is being clarified, according to the Ukrainian military, which claimed earlier that 400 Russian soldiers were killed and a further 300 were wounded. It has not directly acknowledged a role in the strike. CNN cannot independently confirm those numbers or the weapons used in the attack.
The strike took place just after midnight on Sunday, New Year’s Day, on a vocational school housing Russian conscripts in Makiivka, in the Donetsk region, according to both Ukrainian and pro-Russian accounts.
The attack has led to vocal criticism of Moscow’s military from pro-Russian militaryblogger, who claimed that troops lacked protection and were quartered next to a large cache of munitions, which exploded when Ukrainian rockets hit the school.
The defense ministry of Russia claimed that 63 of their troops died in the attack and it was one of the worst episodes in the war.
Russian senator Grigory Karasin said that those responsible for the killing of Russian servicemen in Makiivka must be found, Russian state news agency TASS reported Monday.
Video reportedly from the scene of the attack circulated widely on Telegram, including on an official Ukrainian military channel. It shows a pile of smoking rubble, in which almost no part of the building appears to be standing.
“Greetings and congratulations” to the separatists and conscripts who “were brought to the occupied Makiivka and crammed into the building of vocational school,” the Strategic Communications Directorate of the Chief Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said on Telegram. The Russian soldiers were packed in bags by Santa.
The high command may be unaware of the capabilities of the weapon, said Daniil Bezsonov on Telegram.
“I hope that those responsible for the decision to use this facility will be reprimanded,” Bezsonov said. “There are enough abandoned facilities in Donbas with sturdy buildings and basements where personnel can be quartered.”
The building was almost completely destroyed by the detonation of the ammunition stores according to a Russian propagandist who wrote about it on Telegram.
“Nearly all the military equipment, which stood close to the building without the slightest sign of camouflage, was also destroyed,” Girkin said. There are no final figures on casualties as many people are still missing.
He has decried Russian generals who he said direct the war effort far from the frontline, and who were unwilling to listen to warnings about putting equipment and personnel so close together. The minister of defense of the self-proclaimed Russian- backed Donetsk People’s Republic was sentenced in a Dutch court to death for his part in the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in eastern Ukranian.
Boris Rozhin, who also blogs about the war effort under the nickname Colonelcassad, said that “incompetence and an inability to grasp the experience of war continue to be a serious problem.”
The unnecessary losses, due to the fact that some conclusions are not made, might have been avoided if precautions had been taken.
The Air War in Donetsk: What Do U.S. Air Forces Learn from the Cold War? An F-16 Pilot’s Perspective
Donetsk has been held by pro-Russian separatists since 2014 and it is one of four Ukrainian regions that Moscow sought to annex in October in violation of international law.
Russian forces “lost 760 people killed just yesterday, (and) continue to attempt offensive actions on Bakhmut,” the military’s general staff said Sunday.
Russian units have been pressing an offensive towards the city of Bakhmut in Donetsk for months but have suffered heavy losses as Ukrainian forces have targeted them in what is largely open rural territory.
Russian missile strikes hit a number of Ukrainian regions over the weekend. There were attacks that killed at least six people in the region, but a man was wounded early Monday.
All previous air wars of the past century have one thing in common: pilots are rare. And this goes very much against the traditional perception of air combat.
“Top Gun: Maverick is Oscar-nominated this year for Best Picture. And here we are, watching an air war happening. And it looks very different from anything that we see in Top Gun,” said Kelly Grieco, with the Stimson Center, a Washington think tank.
There are aircraft that are still flying. But we’re talking a very small number of sorties compared to compared to past wars,” said Grieco, who keeps close tabs on the air war.
He knows what to do in regards to these tenets. Gersten flew combat missions as an F-16 pilot early in his career, and later commanded U.S. drone operations in the Middle East. He saw drones assume a prominent role in the U.S. air campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan. But piloted U.S. war planes played a significant role in those conflicts as well, and the U.S. alone dominated the skies.
“We were contacted by an American (aid group) that couldn’t get their ambulances into besieged cities and asked if it could use our drones,” said Chell, who’s based in Vancouver.
“When I ask about F-16, I never heard about a problem with the spare parts or the supply chain. It’s a long time of training courses for your pilots, normally the answer is ‘Oleksii’. But President Biden has been clear. Fighter jets are not being sent because they would put more vulnerable pilots and expensive planes in the sky.
The Battle of Bakhmut: The Support of the Donetsk Regime by the Marine Infantry and the First Russian Army Combat Team in the Armed Forces
Somewhere in the battle for the eastern Ukrainian town of Bakhmut, Russian soldiers are being torn apart, and burned, as the ground itself erupts when the rockets find their target. The effect of the rockets will be passed onto the pilots later. Their task now is to stay alive.
There are a number of videos that demonstrate basic tactical mistakes in an area that is open and flat, where Ukrainian spotters on higher ground can direct attacks on Russia.
CNN and military experts analyzed videos released by the Ukrainian military that show at least two dozen Russian tanks and infantry vehicles being disabled or destroyed in a matter of days. Satellite images show the impact of Russian tanks on tree lines.
The assault on Vuhledar, where the 155th Marine Brigade is involved, is being led by the Russian Defense Ministry. Russian President Putin said that the Marine infantry is working as it should. Right now. Fighting heroically.”
But the leader of the self-declared, Russian-backed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), Denis Pushilin, acknowledged Friday that the area was “hot” and said “the enemy continues to transfer reserves in large quantities, and this slowed down the liberation of this settlement.”
In the name of the coal mine and the surrounding plains, it is referred to as the gift of coal. Its high-rise buildings are used to defend it. Mechanized – a significant advantage, as well as hardened underground cover.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/13/europe/russia-ukraine-vuhledar-donetsk-fiasco-intl/index.html
On Russia’s Military High Command During the Crimes of T-72: A “Shameful Debacle” for the Military
Critics of Russia’s military high command say the handling of the latest offensive is worse still, with one military blogger describing it as a “shameful debacle.”
The best soldiers and tanks of T-72B3/T-80BVM were destroyed in the battle, Strelkov said on Telegram.
In a post on Telegram, he wrote, “Only morons attack head-on in the same place heavily fortified and extremely inconvenient for the attackers for many months in a row.”
Russia’s military bloggers have tens and sometimes hundreds of thousands of subscribers to their Telegram channels. They were critical of the last episodes in the campaign.
Moscow calling said that older T-72 tanks have no upgrades that will improve the driver’s scope of vision. That may help explain several instances in which Russian tanks seemed to get entangled or reverse blindly.
How are tanks, armored personnel carriers and infantry supposed to fight without columns? If there isn’t communication or situational awareness, how do you coordinate any actions? he wrote.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/13/europe/russia-ukraine-vuhledar-donetsk-fiasco-intl/index.html
The fate of Lieutenant General Rustam Muradov in Kiev: a criticism of his actions in the fight against Vuhledar
Several Russian commentators have called for the dismissal of Lieutenant General Rustam Muradov, the commander of the Eastern Grouping of Forces. Muradov was in charge in November when men of the 155th protested that his tactics had caused disastrous losses.
In an expletive-laden post, the pro-Wagner Telegram channel Grey Zone said of Muradov: “This coward is lying down at the control point and sending column after column until the commander of one of the brigades involved in the Vuhledar assault is dead on the contact line.”
The Institute for the Study of War says that poor leadership is only one of many reasons why the 155th Naval infantry brigade isn’t performing well.
There is a mixture of Russian forces in the area and some are even close to the Russian defense ministry, according to Ukrainian military officials.
The commander of Ukrainian forces Valeriy Zaluzhnyi said that effective fire damage is the key to success on the battlefield.
Serhiy Cherevaty, spokesman for the armed forces, said that soldiers need to keep building defensive lines. But he also said that part of the reason for the order a day earlier barring civilians, including aid workers, from entering the city was to keep military operations secret.
As a prize, Bakhmut offers little in the way of strategic value for either Moscow or Kyiv. Its significance comes more from the amount of blood spilled to claim it.
John Kirby, spokesman for the National Security Council said that even if Bakhmut fell, it wouldn’t have a big impact on the war. “I would go so far as to say it won’t even have necessarily a strategic impact on the fighting in that part of the country.”
“It’s a little scary”: a surprise moment for two young men who had served in the United Nations as transport helicopters
Western officials inBrussels were reluctant to discuss whether Ukraine would succeed in securing powerful weapons to use against the Russians.
The allies have promised to supply Kyiv with battle tanks in addition to various Western weapon systems. Mr. Austin said the priority now was to make sure Ukrainian troops were trained on how to use these weapons effectively, describing it as “a monumental task” that is “really the focus of our conversation today.”
Mr. Austin said there was no announcement to make today, even though he was asked if fighter jets had been discussed.
The horizon disappears for a while as the helicopter’s nose slides down. There’s a faint thump as rockets trailing brown smoke arc ahead. The aircraft is in the air, and it’s bank is as if it were hit by an outside force.
In the past, we were always surprised that we were here. The deputy commander of the Sikorsky brigade doesn’t want to give any information about his location or name.
Serhiy and Hennady are two middle-aged pilots who have flown behind them for more than two decades. The United Nations had several missions in the early 2000s that they flew for.
The experience, they say, had been invaluable. It gave them experience flying in the middle of a civil war and kept their hours up.
The Mi-8s in this flight were conceived as transport helicopters in the 1960s, but are now mounted with rockets. They don’t have armor to protect the pilots, unlike modern or soviet-era attack helicopters.
Dangerously close to the front line, he could not stay on the ground so, after a quick inspection, took off on his damaged blades. He flew to a rear location where engineers could swap the damaged equipment with three others cannibalized from a different helicopter.
Zelensky: We need new helicopters for the NATO mission. Serhiy’s frustrations with the lack of aircraft from the Soviet era
Zelensky has begged NATO for various things, among them jets. The response so far has been very quiet.
The United Kingdom has offered to boost Ukraine’s helicopter fleet with a handful of ancient Sea King aircraft that have been decommissioned from the military. The defense minister of Portugal said that the Ukrainian government would have to fix itself if it received six Russian-made ата-3211VS.
For Serhiy, the Ukrainian pilot, the equipment can’t arrive soon enough. Speaking to CNN at the brigade’s operation base, he says, “Of course we need newer helicopters because we have aircraft from the Soviet era. We are squeezing everything possible and impossible out of them.
His team hides their fuel and equipment at temporary locations near the front line. The support crews are covering their faces. The perimeter security is invisible.
But he had to wait 24 hours to learn this from Ukrainian drone operators who’d called him in to give him the news. Because by the time his rockets hit the ground, he was racing away below tree height.
“The Russians can find and hit us from more than 30km away. He explains that sometimes they can hide behind hills, because they have radar that can track them.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/17/europe/ukraine-pilots-helicopter-russia-intl-cmd/index.html
The pain of bereavement but how painful is it to lose a loved one? “I’m sorry, but I cannot move on,” says Serhiy
The pain of bereavement though remains raw. “In December, a very close friend of mine died,” says Serhiy. Many of my friends have already died. It is very painful, I am very upset… I cannot move on…”