Daily Report from the Ukraine Field for 2022-07-25
Daily Report from the Ukraine Field for 2022-07-25
News, Telegram, and Twitter Articles
❗️🇷🇺🇺🇦 Situation in the Soledar direction as of 3 p.m. on July 25, 2022 by @rybar:
Allied forces are suppressing Ukrainian positions along the entire line of contact. The fiercest fighting unfolded near Pokrovskoye and in the vicinity of the Uglegorskaya TPP. Ukrainian forces are partially retreating under the cover of tactical and army aviation and mined escape routes.
🔻The Seversk section:
▪️ Ukrainian artillery is firing a barrage in the Berestovoye and Belogorovka area to slow the advance of Allied forces west of the Bakhmut-Lysychansk highway.
▪️ To maintain combat readiness and morale of the 10th Ogsh Brigade personnel in the first line of defense, the 108th Brigade battalion was replaced with one battalion of the 54th Ombra.
▪️ Several platoons of the 25th Army Brigade of the AFU were sent to Fedorovka and Vasyukovka.
🔻 In the Bakhmutovsky (Artemovsky) area:
▪️ The most intense fighting is going on in the vicinity of Pokrovskoye: after the capture of the southern outskirts of the settlement, the assault detachments of the Wagner PMC continue to break the defense inside the settlement itself.
The capture of Pokrovskoye will make it possible to reach the eastern outskirts of Bakhmut (Artemivsk) and begin to storm one of the key links in the AFU defense in this section of the front.
▪️ To the north of Pokrovskoye, from the direction of Vladimirovka, Bakhmutskoye is being stormed - it is the "gateway" to Soledar.
The fortifications in Kramatorsk are being strengthened in case the first line of defense in Bakhmut and Soledar is broken. Reinforcements are arriving in the city.
▪️ Stugna and Fagot missile launchers are positioned in the vicinity of Paraskoviyivka and Zvanovka to deter the offensive.
🔻 The situation near the Uglegorsk thermal power plant:
▪️Despite premature reports, the Uglegorsk TPP still remains under the control of the AFU. The command abandoned the rank-and-file personnel and left the area of the power plant. Key strongholds around the plant were taken the day before, leaving the AFU with one last escape route to Semigorie.
▪️Simultaneously with the escape from the Uglegorskaya TPP, units of the 72nd brigade retreated from Novoluganskoye to Semigorie. Units of Allied forces entered Novoluganskoye, and the assault and mopping-up continues. The advance of Russian troops is complicated by the mining of the main routes.
▪️ The AFU command activates army and tactical aviation along the entire Novoluganskoye-Bakhmut route, covering the retreat of its forces. Ukrainian Su-24 and Su-25 aircraft, as well as Ukrainian Air Force Mi-8 and Mi-24 helicopters are operating in the area of Vershina, Zvanovka and Semigorie.
#Bakhmut #dijest #Donetsk #map #Lugansk #Russia #Soledar #Ukraine
🔻MAP🔻
[Forwarded from MoD Russia]
⚡️Emergency Statement of the Joint Coordination Headquarters for Humanitarian Response in Ukraine
▫️According to the Russian Defence Ministry, the Kiev regime in Slavyansk has completed preparations for a monstrous provocation using highly toxic substances. In the next few days, SSU officers plan to blow up tanks with more than 120 tonnes of the chemically hazardous substance, hexane, at the oil and fats plant.
▫️Explosion of the hexane tanks would create a toxic cloud that would spread more than 10 kilometres away. All residential areas of Slavyansk and nearby settlements will be in the chemical attack zone.
▫️The specific cynicism of such inhuman actions by the Ukrainian authorities is that they are prepared to sacrifice tens of thousands of their own citizens living in Slavyansk, as well as servicemen of the Ukrainian armed formations stationed in the city, to achieve their criminal goals.
▫️Hexane is a powerful neurotoxin and carcinogen. Irritating to skin, affects lungs if inhaled, acts as a strong narcotic, causes drowsiness, dizziness, peripheral nervous system damage, numbness of legs, central nervous system depression and eye irritation. Prolonged inhalation of hexane causes chronic poisoning, leading to serious nervous system disorders, manifested by decreased sensitivity, rapid fatigue, decreased muscle tone and headaches. However, because hexane is capable of igniting spontaneously at ambient temperatures of plus 23-38ºC (followed by intense combustion and high heat release), an explosion could also occur due to the abnormally high ambient air temperature currently prevailing in Slavyansk district. The most effective emergency measures for protection against hexane vapour are to take cover indoors and to close windows and doors tightly. In case of poisoning, ensure fresh air supply to the victim and protect the respiratory system and skin.
▫️We recommend that the residents of Slavyansk and neighbouring localities take the necessary protective measures immediately.
▫️The purpose of this provocation is to accuse the Russian Armed Forces and Donetsk People's Republic formations of allegedly indiscriminate strikes against potentially dangerous objects, using a well-established scenario, followed by extensive coverage in the Ukrainian and Western media.
▫️We once again emphasize that during the special military operation, the Russian armed forces and military formations of the Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics are not targeting civilian infrastructure.
▫️We call on the United Nations, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to immediately influence the Ukrainian authorities and take effective measures to prevent this provocation.
#Russia #Ukraine @mod_russia_en
A Kherson Counteroffensive or a Ruse?
Regarding the presumed "Kherson counteroffensive," here I am on the side of skepticism and caution, along with others, like Starshe Eddy (@VysokyGovorit), and would instead postulate that the most obvious and expected maneuver is rarely one that succeeds.
The noise is deafening. Even the Russian army has been forced to respond to the chatter about the "counteroffensive" by transferring additional troops from elsewhere in the southern theatre of the campaign to defend the Kherson front lines. It is precisely because this "counteroffensive" is so highly anticipated, that the easiest and most natural feint would be to start the attack elsewhere.
It must be recalled that the Kherson area is linked to other Russian-held territories and to the Crimean reserves by only a few transportation arteries, including the vital Antonovsky bridge that Ukraine has been targeting repeatedly—but, interestingly, not yet fatally—over the past little while.
A possible alternative to a Kherson "counteroffensive" would involve, for instance, the pull and transfer of Russian units from Zaporozhye to the Kherson area, with the subsequent attack on the Antonovsky bridge and other transportation junctions connecting Kherson to the rest of the Tavridian south, in order to cut off the Russian troops, all the while the real offensive is conducted along the Vasilyevka-Orekhov-Gulyai Pole-Velikaya Novoselovka-Ugledar line, particularly in the area near the Ukrainian stronghold of Gulyai Pole and south of Ugledar, where the Russian defences had already been tested recently.
The intention, in this case, would be, of course, to open up the front toward Volnovakha, Berdyansk, and Melitopol. For the very reason why Zaporozhye would be just as attractive of a target as Kherson—cutting into the Russian-held Crimean land corridor—the Kharkov theatre of the conflict, which is too close to the Russian border, is unlikely to be the site of such a surprise operation. Moreover, it's already been tried, and the profit gained by Ukraine was minimal.
I have to trust that Russian intelligence has a good bird's-eye-view of the maneuvering of the Ukrainian troops, intelligence, and counterintelligence teams (including their US and British puppeteers), and I have to assume that none of the Russian repositionings has endangered any other theatres of the conflict and front line directions (such as Zaporozhye).
On the whole, it is still far more likely that Ukraine will follow the Kherson "counteroffensive" plan with the intelligence and determination of a smooth-brained hedgehog lugging a grenade instead of an apple back to its nesting grounds, but I would not dismiss outright the possibility of the Kherson "counteroffensive" being a ruse. It is all just a bit too convenient. The leaks, then denials from Ukrainian officials, the constant pronouncements and threats, the visit by Zelensky to Krivoy Rog. No military operation that is announced ahead of time has ever been truly successful.
(approximate maps of the Kherson region, with two major transportation junctions indicated, as well as the Zaporozhye region, with potention directions of a possible Ukrainian offensive in the area, are provided in the subsequent post)
