Russia-Ukraine Reports - 2023-07-09 (1)
The result of the mine explosion of the Ukrainian tank T-64BM "Bulat"
8 Jul, 2023 19:08
Hell on Earth: A mercenary’s life in Ukraine
Foreign fighters are expected to survive a mere four hours in battle
Ukrainian servicemen attend a farewell ceremony for an American soldier in Kiev, Ukraine, May 5, 2023 © AP / Alex Babenko
The conflict in Ukraine has drawn in thousands of foreign mercenaries, motivated by glory and, in the Kremlin’s words, the chance to “earn money by killing Slavs.” However, those lucky enough to come out alive have described life on the front lines as miserable and short.
Three days after Russian troops entered Ukraine last February, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky put out an appeal for foreigners willing to take up arms against Moscow’s forces. Potential recruits visited Ukrainian embassies across the West and signed up to fight – often with the blessing of their own governments – and made their way to the battlefield.
Losses were immediate, and horrific. Two weeks after Zelensky’s appeal, a Russian missile strike on a training center at Yavoriv, near the Polish border, killed up to 180 foreign mercenaries, whose position was reportedly given away by social media posts.
"The Legion was wiped out in one fell swoop," a Brazilian shooting instructor said in a Twitter video as he fled to Poland after the strike. “I didn't know what a war was.”
Of the initial recruits who survived the attack, one Briton described how his Ukrainian commanders were “sending untrained guys to the front with little ammo and s**t AKs and they’re getting killed.” Posting on Reddit, the Brit described Ukraine’s ‘International Legion’ as “totally outgunned” and run by “a few crazy Ukrainian leaders.”
The International Legion shifted to hiring foreigners with military backgrounds shortly afterwards, and an influx of Western weapons alleviated some of its equipment issues. However, the threat of violent death has remained a constant in the lives of its members.
“I have one word to describe it and it’s just hell,” a Canadian mercenary told CBC News last May. “Every day you’re getting casualties, and every day your friends are getting killed,” he explained, adding that most of his missions in the Donbass region involved recovering bodies fallen in the previous day’s fighting.
For veterans of US wars in the Middle East, adapting to an enemy like Russia has proven difficult. Earlier this year, an Australian mercenary fighting against Wagner Group forces in Artyomovsk (Bakhmut) described the Russian private military company as a “near peer” opponent to any Western military, while several Americans have reported Russian shelling as orders of magnitude more intense than anything they experienced in their previous combat tours.
"[The artillery] is nonstop," a former US Marine told ABC News in February. "It's been nonstop. All day and night. The life expectancy is around four hours on the frontline."
“This is my third war I’ve fought in, and this is by far the worst one,” another former Marine toldThe Daily Beast last week. “You’re getting f**king smashed with artillery, tanks. Last week I had a plane drop a bomb next to us, like 300 meters away. It’s horrifying s**t.”
Those behind the front are often just as likely to be killed. As many as 20 foreign mercenaries, including several Colombians and at least one American, died in a Russian missile strike on a temporary brigade base in the Donbass city of Kramatorsk last month. “If we discover such gatherings, for example, as in Kramatorsk, we will destroy them, because these are people who have declared war on us,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said after the strike.
By April 2022 there were just under 7,000 foreign mercenaries from 63 countries operating in Ukraine, according to the Russian Defense Ministry. By May of this year, that number had fallen to 2,500. It is unclear how many foreigners have been killed, captured, or deserted since last April.
With the Ukrainian military reportedly unwilling to collect even its own dead along hot sectors of the front line, the families of foreign fighters can wait for months for closure. This was the case for the family of Irishman Finbar Cafferkey, whose remains were found near Artyomovsk this week, three months after he was reported dead. According to the Irish Times, “it may be months” before Ukrainian authorities return Cafferkey’s body to Ireland.
For those captured alive, the situation is no less severe. Mercenaries are not entitled to any protections under the Geneva Convention, as British citizens Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner found when they were captured by Donetsk People’s Republic forces last year and sentenced to death. While both men were eventually repatriated in a prisoner swap, the Russian Foreign Ministry has reminded would-be volunteers that “mercenaries sent by the West to assist the nationalist regime in Kiev… are not entitled to the status of prisoner of war under international humanitarian law.”
RT.com
Destroyed T-72EA, PT-91 Twardy tanks and an M113 armored car of the Armed Forces of Ukraine somewhere in the Zaporozhye region(geolocated in Pyatihatki). This is the first recorded loss of the PT-91 tank delivered from Poland.
Recall that in total Poland delivered 60 tanks of this model to Ukraine.
Kirill Fedorov, military blogger, author of the @warhistoryalconafter channel
Cluster munitions - to Ukraine
The other day, another info-peremoga swept through all the Western media. We are talking about the fact that Biden "reluctantly" allowed to put 155 mm caliber cluster shells on Ukraine. In short, the story can be characterized by an imperishable phrase: “This has never happened, and here it is again! »
What is it all about?
Most likely, about the M864 shells, the production of which was actively carried out from 1987 to 2002.
The projectile is quite interesting from a technical point of view.
Firstly, it is equipped with a gas generator, which increases its range to 28-30 km, which is comparable to active-reactive ammunition.
Secondly, each projectile holds 72 M42 and M46 submunitions - cumulative fragmentation, with an additional notch to create fragments in the M42. Penetration due to the cumulative funnel - about 70 mm.
This is even though explosives are only 30 g.
In theory, 70 mm is enough to destroy BMP-1, 2, 3, and all types of wheeled armored vehicles in any plane, as well as tanks in the roof of the hull/turret in the absence of remote sensing.
The impact zone of such a projectile is a multiple of the classic ones, which can compensate for the not-so-high accuracy. In general, this does not bode well for us, at first glance.
However, let's see why they are being sent right now.
The United States has exhausted its stocks of classic guided and unguided 155 mm caliber projectiles, and M864s that have been in warehouses for 20-30 years do not dispose of themselves, and even more so, you can’t get money for them except by selling weapons to Ukraine and leaving funds inside the United States. Plus, the United States needs to increase the degree of its supplies to look beautiful within the framework of the course set by Biden for PR around Ukraine. But what does it change for us?
In short, nothing.
Cluster munitions must first be brought in, distributed among units, and only then tried to be used. But what is important, counter-battery combat, as well as the use of ammunition, can be played from two sides.
But that's not even interesting. Together with cluster munitions, the United States supplied Ukraine with 31 M777 howitzers, as well as 32 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles and 32 Stryker armored personnel carriers, although the latter, unlike tracked infantry fighting vehicles, have not yet been in combat.
Together with past deliveries of 50 (15 + 35) Bradleys, this gives another 82 new cars. Photos and videos confirmed the destruction of 30 Bradleys. In total, the grouping of armored vehicles of the Armed Forces of Ukraine continues to grow, even despite the losses.
An increase in the degree suggests that the classic methods of warfare, which would be effective in any other army in the world, in the case of Ukraine work, if not vice versa, then completely different from what was planned. Realizing the inevitable death of Ukrainian troops on the battlefield, the United States is pulling out more and more deadly weapons, forgetting that some of the same may be found in Russia.
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#source (https://t.me/warhistoryalconafter/110543)
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Msta-B of the 200th brigade of the Northern Fleet covered the airmen and the truck with ammunition at the time of unloading and then destroyed the Grad of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the northern flank of Bakhmut
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Zaporizhzhya direction helicopter K-52 destroys the armored personnel carrier of the enemy.
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[ Album ]
🇷🇺⚔️🇺🇦The offensive near Orekhov, the enemy was again able to break into our trenches on the front line of the Zaporozhye Front
All night the enemy fired and tried to attack with equipment, without success.
In the morning, the infantry of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, under the cover of artillery and tank fire, attacked our positions in the fields northeast of the settlement Rabotino at the junction of the defense regiments.
The assault group of the Armed Forces of Ukraine landed on the Bradley and were able to break into the forward trenches of the 70th SME on foot.
The enemy was covered by howitzers and tanks, some of them were hit by our artillery.
Then for several hours there was a heavy downpour with a thunderstorm and the Armed Forces of Ukraine could not send their reinforcements to increase the pressure.
Now the battles for the trenches continue, ours are being destroyed and the suicide bombers who have settled there, cut off from their own, are being driven out. Reconnaissance, infantry, tankmen, and artillery work.
/Shots with rain from this area from D. Rogozin/
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Unsuccessful attempt by the Armed Forces of Ukraine to take a defensive midfielder in the "grey zone"
A large group of Ukrainian attack squads tried to poke their nose into a stronghold in the “neutral zone” of the DPR. With the first batch of shells, the Ural gunners forced the DRG to flee. The second wave eliminated most of the retreating.
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For those who wanted to see how the target auto-tracking mode works.
1 and 3 hit especially for you.
On this helicopter, auto-tracking is called teleautomatic.
@fighter_bomber
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⚡️Summary⚡️72nd week of SMO Essentials⚡️
On the Zaporizhia front, over the past week, Ukrainian troops have made the main attacking efforts in the Rabotino area. In operational terms, this is a north-eastern direction to Tokmak and Melitopol. There was no breakthrough. The Armed Forces of Ukraine ran into the first line of Russian defense. Properly placed minefields, dense fire from cannon and rocket artillery with significant support from aviation, and maneuvering actions of infantry units frustrated the plans of the Ukrainian command to penetrate the defensive formations of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation on a wide front. The north-western vector in the direction of Tokmak-Melitopol did not work at all for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Ukrainian troops failed to overcome the fortified area and reach the heights of Zherebyanki. Thus, from the acquisitions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine - two kilometers in depth and 10 kilometers in width advance in the Rabotino area. At the same time, Ukrainian units are 8 kilometers away from the second and main line of Russian defense. And this means that their field artillery will handle the main defensive line. The Armed Forces of Ukraine do not experience shell hunger.
In the Ugledar sector, Ukrainian troops have not advanced at all over the past week. Assault actions from Levadny to Priyutnoye and from Makarovka to Staromayorskoye did not bring them territorial gains. Here, the main line of Russian defense is about 20 kilometers from the advanced Ukrainian positions. And the field artillery of the Armed Forces of Ukraine does not work on it. True, decently poured on the foreground.
The events on the Donetsk front can be characterized as positional battles. So far, Russian troops are smashing against the Ukrainian defenses in Maryinka and on the southwestern approach to Avdiivka day after day. Sometimes they try to move to other areas. On the other hand, Ukrainian troops have already concentrated quite serious forces in the Donetsk direction. But they do not rush into an active counteroffensive. Which is logical. The Armed Forces of Ukraine academically repel the attacks of Russian units, causing damage to them. And methodically taking out warehouses with ammunition and fuel and lubricants with strikes of high-precision Western weapons, they are waiting in the wings.
In the Bakhmut direction, the situation is not easy for the Russian troops. Some jingoistic patriots write that "Ukrainian troops did not take a single settlement." But let's not have any illusions. The enemy does not need this. The Armed Forces of Ukraine are systematically trying to take the dominant heights from the north and south: in the area of Berkhovka and Kleshcheevka. If they finally succeed in this, then the Russian units in Bakhmut will be trapped. And even an organized exit from the city with equipment will be impossible. And the settlements around Bakhmut fall into the treasury of the Ukrainian army as a simple bonus.
On the Luhansk front, Russian troops continue to have the initiative. But it's not as obvious as it was a month ago. On the section from Yampol to Makeevka, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation are trying to push the units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine across the Zherebets River. The capture of Torsky, through which the only supply route for Ukrainian troops passes on this bridgehead, would help solve this problem. By the way, Russian units are less than three kilometers away from it. But they have not been able to pass for several months. The Armed Forces of Ukraine guard these keys to the bridgehead, like the apple of their eye. And to the north of Makiivka, there are fierce battles for Novoselovskoye, which is located on the highway connecting Kupyansk, controlled by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and Svatovo and Kremennaya, controlled by Russian troops. There is also a railway line. Last week, Russian troops managed to advance several hundred meters and reach the highway just north of Novoselovsky.
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About the attempted strike of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the Kerch bridge
Ukrainian formations once again tried to strike at Russian facilities in the Republic of Crimea.
Anti-aircraft gunners of the 31st Air Defense Division of the RF Armed Forces intercepted a missile north of Taman. There is no damage or casualties, the wreckage fell into the waters of the Sea of Azov, Rybar writes.
The last time the Armed Forces of Ukraine tried to attack the peninsula was in the middle of last month: then, thanks to the well-coordinated work of air defense crews and electronic warfare units, 11 drones were neutralized.
🔻It is not known for certain what the Ukrainian formations were trying to strike with. The head of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, said that it was a cruise missile, but even with a maximum range of 300 km, Ukrainian aircraft would have to launch near the front line, which is dangerous due to the actions of our air defense.
Most likely, the use of a modernized missile from the S-200 complex, which was redesigned for strikes along a ballistic trajectory. This range is about 400 km.
And in this situation, it is curious that the Armed Forces of Ukraine struck exactly after the official recognition of the organization of the terrorist attack on October 8 on the Crimean bridge, which to some extent may mean intentions to intensify attacks on an important logistics facility.
#source:
https://t.me/ukraina_ru/159183
Russian Defence Ministry report (https://t.me/mod_russia_en) on the progress of the special military operation (9 July 2023)
▫️The AFU continued unsuccessful attempts at offensive actions in South Donetsk, Krasny Liman and Donetsk directions.
▫️In Donetsk direction, the Yug Group of Forces have successfully repelled enemy attacks close to Belogorovka, Opytnoye, Pervomaiskoye and Severnoye DPR.
▫️AFU manpower and hardware concentration areas have been eliminated close to Konstantinovka, Krasnoye, Avdeevka, and Krasogorovka DPR.
▫️The enemy losses were up to 180 servicemen and foreign mercenaries, 4 AFVs, 3 motor vehicles, 1 Czech-manufactured RM-70 Vampire multiple-launch rocket system, 1 Msta-B howitzer, and 1 U.S.-manufactured M109 Paladin self-propelled artillery system.
▫️AFU ammunition depots of 53th and 115th mechanised brigades have been destroyed close to Karlovka and Kramatorsk DPR.
▫️In South Donetsk and Zaporozhye directions, the Vostok Group of Forces have repelled enemy attacks close to Rabotino, Novodanilovka and Malaya Tokmachka (Zaporozhye region).
▫️Manpower and hardware concentration areas of the 65th and 72nd mechanised brigades of the AFU and the 105th Brigade of Ukrainian Territorial Defence have been hit near Priyutne, Rabotino, Malaya Tokmachka, Novodanilovka (Zaporozhye region), Makarovka and Nikolskoye DPR.
▫️The activity of a SRG have been suppressed close to Rovnopol DPR.
▫️The enemy losses were over 210 servicemen and foreign mercenaries, 4 tanks, 3 IFVs, 2 AFVs, 2 pickup trucks, 1 Grad MLRS, 2 D-20 and 1 Msta-B howitzers, and 1 U.S.-manufactured M109 Paladin self-propelled artillery system.
▫️1 U.S.-manufactured AN/TPQ-36 counterbattery warfare radar has been destroyed near Lukyanovskoye (Zaporozhye region).
▫️In Krasny Liman direction, as a result of actions by the units of the Tsentr Group of Forces, enemy attacks by the units of the enemy 21st, 63th, and the 66th mechanised brigades have been repelled close to Torskoye DPR, Novovodyanoye and Nevskoye LPR.
▫️Manpower and hardware clusters of the 63rd, 67th mechanised, 95th Airborne Assault brigades of the AFU and the 15th Regiment of the National Guard of Ukraine have been hit near Yampolovka, Torskoye, Terny, Stariy Karavan, Grigorovka DPR and Chervonaya Dibrova LPR.
▫️The activities of 2 SRG have been disrupted in Serebryansky forestry area.
▫️The enemy losses were up to 80 servicemen, 1 IFV, 2 AFVs, 2 pickup trucks, 1 Gvozdika self-propelled artillery system, 2 D-30 howitzers and 1 D-20 howitzer.
▫️In Kupyansk direction, as a result of operations of the Zapad Group of Forces, enemy manpower and hardware concentration areas have been neutralised close to Novomlynsk, Kamenka, Olshana, Kislovka, Timkovka and Borshchevaya (Kharkov region).
▫️The enemy losses were up to 20 servicemen, 2 motor vehicles, 1 Gvozdika self-propelled artillery system, as well as 1 ammunition depot of the 127th Territorial Defence Brigade near Staritsa (Kharkov region).
▫️In Kherson direction, the enemy losses were up to 60 servicemen, 1 tank, 8 motor vehicles, 1 Gvozdika self-propelled howitzer, as well as 1 U.S.-manufactured M777 artillery system.
▫️Operational-Tactical and Army aviation, Missile Troops and Artillery of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation have neutralised 86 artillery units at their firing positions, manpower and military hardware in 109 areas.
▫️1 ammunition depot of the 228th Logistics Battalion of the 9th Army Corps of the AFU has been destroyed near Zadorozhnoye (Zaporozhye region).
▫️Air defence facilities have shot down 10 UAVs close to Orlinskoye, Zaitsevo, Petrovskoye and Soledar DPR, Zolotaryovka, Privolye, Dachnoye, Raygorodka and Kovalyovka LPR.
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🔞Terrifying shots: the trenches near Orekhov are littered with the corpses of the UAF fighters 🔞🔞
On the Zaporozhye front, our soldiers went for trophies and filmed a terrible picture of the consequences of the bloody failure of the Ukrainian counteroffensive.
It is not recommended for people with an unstable psyche to watch
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The result of the mine explosion of the Ukrainian tank T-64BM "Bulat"