Anon052

I hope this isn't true, this would be a major shift and very shortsighted:
 

A warning. At the moment there is a video circulating social media  that show the gruesome beheading of an ukrainian prisoner of war with a knife. I have seen a lot but  this is one of the most traumatizing videos I have ever seen. DO NOT WATCH.
I have no idea how anyone can do such things to another living being. I wouldn't even do it  to my worst enemy. The culture that breeds such behavior is deeply sick. I really wish nato would do a lot more to end this bloodshed as quickly as possible. Not doing it hurts us a lot more than most are realising.
Worse, ordinary russians are celebrating this video.....

A warning. At the moment there is a video circulating social media  that show the gruesome beheading of an ukrainian prisoner of war with a knife. I have seen a lot but  this is one of the most traumatizing videos I have ever seen. DO NOT WATCH.
I have no idea how anyone can do such things to another living being. I wouldn't even do it  to my worst enemy. The culture that breeds such behavior is deeply sick. I really wish nato would do a lot more to end this bloodshed as quickly as possible. Not doing it hurts us a lot more than most are realising.
Worse, ordinary russians are celebrating this video.....

A warning. At the moment there is a video circulating social media  that show the gruesome beheading of an ukrainian prisoner of war with a knife. I have seen a lot but  this is one of the most traumatizing videos I have ever seen. DO NOT WATCH.
I have no idea how anyone can do such things to another living being. I wouldn't even do it  to my worst enemy. The culture that breeds such behavior is deeply sick. I really wish nato would do a lot more to end this bloodshed as quickly as possible. Not doing it hurts us a lot more than most are realising.
Worse, ordinary russians are celebrating this video.....

A warning. At the moment there is a video circulating social media  that show the gruesome beheading of an ukrainian prisoner of war with a knife. I have seen a lot but  this is one of the most traumatizing videos I have ever seen. DO NOT WATCH.
I have no idea how anyone can do such things to another living being. I wouldn't even do it  to my worst enemy. The culture that breeds such behavior is deeply sick. I really wish nato would do a lot more to end this bloodshed as quickly as possible. Not doing it hurts us a lot more than most are realising.
Worse, ordinary russians are celebrating this video.....

My brother in law just died a needlessly horrible drawn out death, today. He fought for decades in a variety of ways to defend the USA. One person was directly responsible for how it went down. My sister is heartbroken, and enraged at what happened. I am in more than a foul mood. So my thoughts right now are colored in a certain way by this tragedy. Not particularly with distance, nuance and diplomacy. What happens when you are inside the box, not outside. My apologies if you don’t like them. I don’t either.
Lot of talk lately about Ukraine has GOT to produce big battlefield wins, now. Trying to put myself within Ukraine’s box:
1. Your country was suddenly invaded by one of the largest monsters in the world, ravaging your cities, raping and killing civilians. That is awful. We condemn it. You will collapse in three days.
2. We are NATO. We are a hugely powerful military alliance designed  to defend ourselves against that very same horrible monster.  Because we all fear trying to do so alone. Like you. Too bad you aren’t in NATO.
3. There won’t be any cavalry coming to your rescue, on land, sea, or air. But good luck, we support you brave people. Here are a lot of supplies and defensive short range weapons. You go fight the monster. We’ll cheer you on. 
4. OK, you have been doing a great job! Well done. Even with most of your cities and power grid regularly under missile and drone attack in the winter,  thousands of casualties, and smashed into rubble cities, you are still standing! Great job! Here are some more weapons, and one with a little longer range. It works really well so you can continue to not only survive but make some progress. Not too much progress though. Might be dangerous. So, no to your other requests for planes and long range weapons. We can’t risk getting attacked by the monster.. But we will open war crimes investigations into the massacres, rapes and civilian killings and targetings.
5. Hey, you haven’t won yet! We don’t think you can win although the monster has obviously already lost. You have really fracked up his army good. By the way, our patience is growing thin and you haven’t defeated one of the world’s largest military powers yet. After a whole year.  We are the richest group of countries ever on Earth.  We have awesome military capabilities beyond belief. And lots of nuclear weapons. If we lose interest and get tired, you probably will have to negotiate away big chunks of your country you fought and died for. If you only achieve a stalemate against the monster. Unless you defeat that monster, real soon now. Here’s a few older tanks we made a long time ago. And a handful of rusty old Soviet/Russian jets, some don’t work though. Please don’t complain. It’s ungrateful.
6. Oh, hey. Go out there as soon as the ground is firmed up and really tear apart the monster, the monster we are definitely not wanting to get any madder at us. No pressure, but if you don’t defeat the monster right now, you are pretty much up a creek because we’re tired and have real problems here in our nice undamaged, heated homes. By the way, we are worried about you defeating the monster. What will happen to the him? He might hurt us. But don’t forget, the monster has already lost.
7. I mean, yeah, the monster just threw a few hundred thousand troops at you and you survived and all. Well, most of you. But hey, they weren’t well-trained. And we all know the monster has already lost (as far as threatening us over here in NATO - yay).  So you better defeat this monster by yourself, Right now. We gave you a LOT of equipment so you should be able to do this on your own. We can’t get involved. But here are a few more old jets. Don’t work so good right now, but…
8. We just got Finland into NATO!  Mostly thanks to you!). Now we are even stronger, and NATO makes sure none of us have to try to defeat the monster on our own. Like you. Because we don’t think we could. We can’t give you more powerful offensive weapons because it would have taken you all last year to learn how to use them. And then you might have defeated the monster. And we are really really worried because that might be bad. For us. You understand. So go out there NOW and defeat the monster. Or we will probably have to reduce our support for you. Like, if things get really bad for you. Not winning. We might not be there. As much. Or something. Hard to tell. But go win. Now. OK? 

PS. I really am pleased at how the West has helped out. I just don’t think it’s been soon enough with enough of the right stuff to end it before the political rot sets in. So I’m ventilating how it might feel. While I am grieving.

There is  a new story about the northstream  sabotage in german Focus.
I did  find the article only in german: https://www.focus.de/politik/ausland/neue-spur-fuehrt-nach-russland-mit-greifarm-u-boot-steuerten-russische-militaerschiffe-nord-stream-pipelines-an_id_189278264.html
This new story is much more plausible then the sailing yacht story. The article states  that on september 19 there  were bigger maneuvers of the russian baltic fleet. It seems at least  3 russian ships (the article states that there could be  6 russian ships in all, all six  ships were named  in the article) used those maneuvers as cover to reach  the location of the bombings and were active there. This activity was detected by different swedish  and danish patrolships. The russian ships had specialised equipment like cranes and submersibles and there were espionage  ships that covered the  activity.
I myself work a lot in the port of Hamburg in explosive ordance  disposal of ww2 ordnance from specialised ships. This yacht story seemed like a  bad joke to me. I can't imagine how they handled the explosive from a yacht without a  crane.
       

There is  a new story about the northstream  sabotage in german Focus.
I did  find the article only in german: https://www.focus.de/politik/ausland/neue-spur-fuehrt-nach-russland-mit-greifarm-u-boot-steuerten-russische-militaerschiffe-nord-stream-pipelines-an_id_189278264.html
This new story is much more plausible then the sailing yacht story. The article states  that on september 19 there  were bigger maneuvers of the russian baltic fleet. It seems at least  3 russian ships (the article states that there could be  6 russian ships in all, all six  ships were named  in the article) used those maneuvers as cover to reach  the location of the bombings and were active there. This activity was detected by different swedish  and danish patrolships. The russian ships had specialised equipment like cranes and submersibles and there were espionage  ships that covered the  activity.
I myself work a lot in the port of Hamburg in explosive ordance  disposal of ww2 ordnance from specialised ships. This yacht story seemed like a  bad joke to me. I can't imagine how they handled the explosive from a yacht without a  crane.
       

There is  a new story about the northstream  sabotage in german Focus.
I did  find the article only in german: https://www.focus.de/politik/ausland/neue-spur-fuehrt-nach-russland-mit-greifarm-u-boot-steuerten-russische-militaerschiffe-nord-stream-pipelines-an_id_189278264.html
This new story is much more plausible then the sailing yacht story. The article states  that on september 19 there  were bigger maneuvers of the russian baltic fleet. It seems at least  3 russian ships (the article states that there could be  6 russian ships in all, all six  ships were named  in the article) used those maneuvers as cover to reach  the location of the bombings and were active there. This activity was detected by different swedish  and danish patrolships. The russian ships had specialised equipment like cranes and submersibles and there were espionage  ships that covered the  activity.
I myself work a lot in the port of Hamburg in explosive ordance  disposal of ww2 ordnance from specialised ships. This yacht story seemed like a  bad joke to me. I can't imagine how they handled the explosive from a yacht without a  crane.
       

There is  a new story about the northstream  sabotage in german Focus.
I did  find the article only in german: https://www.focus.de/politik/ausland/neue-spur-fuehrt-nach-russland-mit-greifarm-u-boot-steuerten-russische-militaerschiffe-nord-stream-pipelines-an_id_189278264.html
This new story is much more plausible then the sailing yacht story. The article states  that on september 19 there  were bigger maneuvers of the russian baltic fleet. It seems at least  3 russian ships (the article states that there could be  6 russian ships in all, all six  ships were named  in the article) used those maneuvers as cover to reach  the location of the bombings and were active there. This activity was detected by different swedish  and danish patrolships. The russian ships had specialised equipment like cranes and submersibles and there were espionage  ships that covered the  activity.
I myself work a lot in the port of Hamburg in explosive ordance  disposal of ww2 ordnance from specialised ships. This yacht story seemed like a  bad joke to me. I can't imagine how they handled the explosive from a yacht without a  crane.
       

There is  a new story about the northstream  sabotage in german Focus.
I did  find the article only in german: https://www.focus.de/politik/ausland/neue-spur-fuehrt-nach-russland-mit-greifarm-u-boot-steuerten-russische-militaerschiffe-nord-stream-pipelines-an_id_189278264.html
This new story is much more plausible then the sailing yacht story. The article states  that on september 19 there  were bigger maneuvers of the russian baltic fleet. It seems at least  3 russian ships (the article states that there could be  6 russian ships in all, all six  ships were named  in the article) used those maneuvers as cover to reach  the location of the bombings and were active there. This activity was detected by different swedish  and danish patrolships. The russian ships had specialised equipment like cranes and submersibles and there were espionage  ships that covered the  activity.
I myself work a lot in the port of Hamburg in explosive ordance  disposal of ww2 ordnance from specialised ships. This yacht story seemed like a  bad joke to me. I can't imagine how they handled the explosive from a yacht without a  crane.
       

There is  a new story about the northstream  sabotage in german Focus.
I did  find the article only in german: https://www.focus.de/politik/ausland/neue-spur-fuehrt-nach-russland-mit-greifarm-u-boot-steuerten-russische-militaerschiffe-nord-stream-pipelines-an_id_189278264.html
This new story is much more plausible then the sailing yacht story. The article states  that on september 19 there  were bigger maneuvers of the russian baltic fleet. It seems at least  3 russian ships (the article states that there could be  6 russian ships in all, all six  ships were named  in the article) used those maneuvers as cover to reach  the location of the bombings and were active there. This activity was detected by different swedish  and danish patrolships. The russian ships had specialised equipment like cranes and submersibles and there were espionage  ships that covered the  activity.
I myself work a lot in the port of Hamburg in explosive ordance  disposal of ww2 ordnance from specialised ships. This yacht story seemed like a  bad joke to me. I can't imagine how they handled the explosive from a yacht without a  crane.
       

It is still early and in social media it does look different lots of talking about "bad Ukraine".  I don't know if I read the same articles, but there was a lot of subtile finger pointing to a pro-ukrainian-Group and connections to Kiev and lot of talking about no hints of false flag.
This seems to be typical of saboteurs to leave behind a business card. Yeah right.
 
 

Thanks for the kind words about beggars. it's so nice to feel like a beggar in a destroyed country under rocket attacks, and you reminded me of this in such a timely manner.
I can say on behalf of the Ukrainians here we dream that you stop this whole farce called support for Ukraine. At least then we would clearly understand what we can count on in the fight against Russia. All your support is nothing more than a mockery.
And one last thing for you personally buddy - ИДИ НА ХУЙ

This looks very bad for SpaceX and Musk:
It seems the russians use new drone jamming systems that work.
I just hope there will be enough pressure on SpaceX to revert this change. I don't know how important Starlink is for Ukraines drone war but it could seriously hamper Ukraine.

This looks very bad for SpaceX and Musk:
It seems the russians use new drone jamming systems that work.
I just hope there will be enough pressure on SpaceX to revert this change. I don't know how important Starlink is for Ukraines drone war but it could seriously hamper Ukraine.

And the time this Video was released is very suspicous. Just after Putin stating that the ukrainian army is executing their  men for desertion.
This Video needs to be georeferenced, to see where it was taken.

The only thing that makes sense is that they (ukraine) genuinely believe that it was NOT their missile or at least their political leaders.
A ukrainian missile wouldn't need the same response from NATO than a russian one.

Short but substantial clip about limits of small drones from US volunteer; it seems he fought before in YPG, so had unique (for Westerner) experience of being on the "wrong side of periscope" already before Ukraine. Note they needed to go on dangerous mission several times into enemy territory just to get back their mavics that were jammed behind Russian lines. That aligns well with other relations from this war: small drones are extremely useful, but still pretty rare and expensive tool.
 
Also Very worthy read from Galeev about bareness of political realism a la Machiavelli regarding Ukraine (rejoice the Twitter till it's still there, btw   )
 
 
 
 

Ok since previous post about adventures of sergeant 'Krzysztof X" from foreign legion became quite popular, I summarized second interview which appeared on 14 october. This time he talks about Kharkiv offensive. Note, he serves in multinational "special detachment" size of of weak platoon (Brits would probably call it "stick"), serving as recon/assault force.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEboMcDuojc&t=4s
Note I omitted some less relevant stuff, but it is still insenly detailed (in fact material for future recon campaign in CMBS...), so VERY long reading. But I think it is worth it, as we don't have too much first hand accounts and simply more people should hear story of these brave folks. Sorry for possible mistakes, I am treating this material as exercise in english and it took several days for half an hour each to compile. It may be slightly incoherent, but I hope it is undestandeable. Text in [] is my commentary.
 
Preparations:
-He claims Kherson offensive was real, but subsidiary from the start to northern one [ note- his personal opinion].
-Offensive in the north was set to begin on 1st September. There was not enough artillery ammo stocks though, so it was delayed for several days. Later they need to race with time, since Russians clearly started to sniff out something big is gonna happen and moved  reinforcments.
- They were called into different part of the front, and worked under new brigade along (in total) 5 special groups subordinated to it.
- His platoon attacked into Kupyansk direction, left of 80th Air Assault Bg. attacking Balaclava. They had insane schedule, with 3 consecutive days they were expected to be in: Vovkhyi Yar-Schevchenkove-Kupyansk. Guys did not believe when told about it and think it was a joke, as it was over 100 km and they barely moved hundred meters till now.

Breaking the front:
- His group was tasked with stealthy clearing paths though minefields for infantry, which they started day before. They worked whole day, get back for a supper, and worked again till middle of the night. Meanwhile assault infantry platoons started to arrive, which they hid in undisclosed space.
- Artillery and HImars started to work in the night "It felt like during WWII". At 4 AM they started to prepare attack, but were delayed again because of supporting tanks were stack for a while in some difficult marshy terrain- also Russians clearly were alarmed by that time, and one RU tank  randomly shoot at their location. Ukrianian tank engaged it.
-They modified plan, but thanks to elastic command it was easier to do [they are special platoon, accustomed to swift decision making unlike rest of common infantry- note how flexible are lower commanders there]. They used a dry gorge (ukr. yar) to get into enemy Observation Point on small hill over it. They pushed sentries back, made corridor and leave attack into infantrymen hands. Specials moved back to rest.
Breaking front lines:
-Russian lines started to crack very quickly in the night. They inexpectedly were awakaned and ordered to mov into breakththough by 5 cars. It was very chaotic environment- a lot of debris, detroyed bridges and sappers [it seems engineers followed special groups before mechanized infantry]. Russians prepared lots of false roads that lead into minefields [interesting detail- again important factor is good driver and spotters]. They somehow successfully passed Vovkhyi Yar roads in light pickups over uncleared roads, but 2 heavier BTR's following them were lost on mines.
-They stayed there for night. They had very vague orders to recon and destroy enemy where possible; platoon commander took decision on his own behalf to try more aggressive recon and thanks to this they reached Schevchenkove by midday. There were so many civilians greeting them, kissing and giving food they had obstructed the road. Guys moved so much forward they lost contact with main column and had no idea if they were followed by heavier forces or were in the town on their own, till they met another group of SSO. They together formed small detachment of 6 with a drone that started to penetrate town itself. Two of his soldiers (Czech and Italian) were so elevated by advance that they cleared several hundred meters of Russian trenches around the town by night(!), without NVG, and not even knowing if main UA force being present behind them [ "blitzkrieg rush" is evident here]
-By 3rd day they moved to Kupyanks road- there they witnessed Russian armour running, but were unable to lay proper ambush due to belts of mines being set along the main roads several kms sideways; they couldn't even shoot with Javelin [another curious aspect- since RU have no infantry to secure roads, they prepared deep obstacles for ambushers along routs of advance  escape].
-Then they moved directly into Kupyansk road, moving in column of several civilian cars and one Cossack armoured car. They passed several checkpoints with abandoned muscovite armour [note they had no knowledge if they will be defended. Extremely risky move]. They reached last checkpoint on hills before Kupyansk, there they fall into ambush on masked bunkers. Fortunatelly, their brigade commander observed it by drone [note they had direct connection to Brigade command] so after sharp firefight they managed to withdraw, their Cossack car being damaged. They laid Javelin ambush just in case and called for support from SSO. Then they participated in failed probing attack on Russian lines, during which SSO offcier was WIA and Russian armour successfully blocked their advance; supporting Ukrainian tank and BTR's run dry on ammo. Only by third attempt on 4 PM they finally cleared the hill and Russian bunkers, with the help of arriving infantry and one more BTR [they stormed it from 10 am and fortifications were probably made from concrete; it could be close to Blahodativka village perhaps?]. The guy was very surprised he survived those days.

-Russian soldiers they encountered there where better equipped than average muscovites; they used for example individually cut bullets "false dum-dum",  also fought very stubbornly. Then he laughingly thanks Russians for providing so much supplies, from excellent food [unusual statement...he means "Spetsnaz military ratios", perhaps better than average🤔] to ammo and equipment.
-Front was very porous by that time, forests and hills around the city far from cleared, and Ukrainian forces behind often fall into ambushes or pinned in meeting engagements. Overal sense of chaos was constant, but very high morale due to presence of cheering civilians pushed them constantly forward ("one more village" syndrome). The more stories they heared from locals, like all young males being arrested and kept for months in small cells,the more were motivated to push- they expected Russians to start killing them like in Bucha [correctly- note many victims from previous massacres were murdered just before liberation, so speed was essential].
-After one day of rest they crossed Oskil river. They did several crossings together with other special other special groups and Kraken unit; spearhead believed they were pushing forward, but were in fact turned back and crossed the river again at Kupyansk alone [clearly Ukrainian command wanted to fool RU as to where main crossing will be]. There endured very heavy bombings by aircraft with case ammunition.
Street battles:
-Battles in Eastern Kupyanks were extremely heavy and lasted several hellish days, with meters between combatants; Russians there were visibly better soldiers than average, truly professionals [visible respect for adversary not present before]. Numerous civilian casualties lied everywhere, especially around the bridge, with people murdered by small arms; probably Russians tried to disperse crowds. Many others died due to artillery and mortars, but they still met civilians trying to find some food [insane, but corroborated by other accounts- due to speed of offensive, Kupyansk was full of civilians during fighting].
-Lines were intermingled and subjected to constant barrage, so a lot of city infrastructure and housing was destroyed. Tactically it was "fire and movement" in urban maze, enforcing fast and constant change of position by small teams unlike anything Western armies did before, often jumping over high fences just to find their previous position being blown by mortars seconds later [clearly Russian had good view and zeroed fires on them, hunting eevry team and soldier they could find]. They could only find short rest in cellars, but these could turn into traps if Russians found them. At nights they let several times Russian tanks and wave of infantry to pass them, later armour being detroyed at close range in the city center. Russians were occassionaly so close their KIA lied directly over and behind Ukrainian positions.
-Russians were very keen on capturing the city, since they still had units left on western bank and only two avenues of escape. Active defense and movement is king of the game in war like this, with large spaces between positions. Thus any army, including Western ones, would fight war of manouvre in such conditions- fortunatelly in this war Russians lacked infantry to "grab and hold" terrain.

-More strategic thoughts- he doesn't think Russian soldier, despite being cruel and ruthless to civilians, is necessarly "mobilized peasant". Some are like that, but many he met were well led professionals knowing their job. Also people at home laughing about Putin's mobilization should consider the influx of infantry, even weak one, will have significant effect on RU ability to hold terrain (especially urban) and plug holes at the front, thus changing nature of war into more linear and static. Once they will be there in mass, It will be more and more difficult for UA special teams to infiltrate the lines, and even recruits with guns can turn any urban fight into nightmare. He generally warns against treating RU mobiks lightly, as disregard for enemy is what started this war in first place [ very good point, btw; I think we sligthly slipped into echo chamber laughing at examples of Russian mobiks being drunk or send into meatgrinder. In favourite conditions, even dying by hundreds, they can make a difference].

-After several days they started to push Russians out of the city toward forests, where they set their positions. Ukrainian assault groups needed to cross more open spaces there, meeting massive barrages of artillery fire. He refuses to tell what they did to avoid them [probably they had Russians tapped somehow, allowing them to "chase off" fire]- it was constant movement to avoid heavy fires and find some cover, with enemy trying to trap them between lines of progressing creeping barrages. In the end they managed to secure enemy positions, and were called off to R&R. All that time they slept very little and were extremely tired.

-Asked for casualties- refuse to tell real numbers, but grimly give Zelensky's number of magnitude of ca. 50 soldiers dying daily as roughly correct; his platoon also suffered combat lossess he refuse to elaborate on. Russian lossess are hard to tell, but were visibly higher than Ukrainian judging by numbers of left dead bodies. Some were lost in doomed Russian assaults that were conducted poorly due to lack of infantry [I suppose too many armour charging blindly forward]. There was also a lot of POW's that will be used as bargaining chip. Russians in turn seem to not taking foreign volunteers as prisoners, which every legionaire should be concious about before he joins [based on Russian nationalistic channels, it can be largely true].
-At the end, he laughs at Shoigu complaining at "Polish mercenaries from under Kharkiv"; there are barely several Poles on entire front, but during one particulary heavy barrage he started to nervously call somebody in native language by radio on open waves, which was intercepted by the enemy and started this legend of "two brigades of Poles" [entirely believeable; Russians and their complexes...😎]
-They spend some days behind the front, but now are again going into recon missions on northern front and hunting Russians. Despite casualties, spirits are very high, especially thanks to civilians they liberated. Many units participating in the offensive are very tired and have used equipment; for example, their 5 cars are junk demanding complex reapair. They are also in need of spare barrels for their carbines [he personaly use GROT but with longer barrel, unsuitable for close combats they often participate in] and exchange for broken NVG's. Still, volunteers and Ukrainians are optimistic as to how the war is going, especially compared to gloomy June.
 
Ok, end for now. If I see other interesting interviews I will try to post them.
 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCcph9srHSw&t=4333s

There is an interesting interview with Polish volunteer sergeant fighting in Ukraine. It is one and a half month old and unfortunatelly no ENG subtitles are available, but there are interesting tactical and organizational details from the ground that are nevertheless relevant and worth to share here. Some are already known, but since he is unusually vocal (within Opsec) plus has a lot of practice it may be worth to bring them on this board:
1.The guy serves as platoon commander (practically down to 12 men + 5 absent) from April. His men are in Separate Special Battalion serving as "Battle Detachment" (re: all kind of missions including SF ones) subordinated to one of the regular brigades, probably mainly at Kharkiv front (undisclosed).

2. Those multinational experienced guys (US, Frenchmen, Poles, Ukrainians and several others) have clearly very different tasks than most common infantry fighting in the trenches- they serve as "fire brigade" in case Russians attacks will brake through. They see periods of very intense fighting, much more than most common soldiers. Interestingly, he claims it is common practice to form such ad hoc local QRF at the brigade and sometimes battalion level. After some time such units are treated as "specialists", taken out of regular order of battle and if having good reputation may be "borrowed" to other brigades for special tasks. Thus they are almost constantly in fight, experiencing problems with fatigue and lack of sleep.

3. Their equipment reflects that- he started with AK 74, but know uses Grot rifle and M14 for sniper tasks, good quality vests and uniforms. He claims many soldiers he served with, including Americans, will prefer those weapons to M4's that are also in use but have reputation of being too fragile in frontline conditions, difficult to keep clean and prone to jamming. He says US M67 granades are also used, but have 5-sec. delay that is way too long in battlefield conditions (mind- probably assaults), so most soldiers in line prefer old F1. It is interesting that he participated in some "water-environment" sabotage missions deep behind enemy lines (planting explosives) armed chiefly with his 9mm pistol.
Entire platoon also have two sets of NVG's for entire unit, which they found very lucky to have- common soldiers rarely have such items.

4. Battlefield effectiveness of AT weapons is also widely different from theoretical. AT-4's serve at max. 150 m but usually closer, NLAW's 6-800 m (platoon get a lot of NLAW's but they had no spare batteries, which shocked soldiers who considered it a sabotage on behalf of "unmentioned" provider state; it almost get them killed). Team's sole Javelin set is effective up to 1500m in practice, but only if line of vision is unobstructed, and similarly they have great problem possessing only pair of batteries- thus they need to allow armour get closer than theoretical range. Infantry is rather vulnarable to RU tanks, since they improved tactics to "shoot and scoot" from 2kms afar, behind practical range of a Javelin: "Unlike at early campaigns, they rarely go into open and creatively use cover and concealment now, preferring their famous carrousel tactics."

5. His and other platoons often do infiltration tactics; it is also visibly different between regular Ukrainians units and Territorial Defence that former prefer aggresive forms of defences- active patrolling, inflitrations, ambushes etc. while latter stick to their trenches, which they nonetheless hold valiantly. His platoon would penetrate several kms deep inside enemy lines on fairly regular basis. They usually move by pickups and technicals- after engagement they instantly mount them and drive at very high speeds, which is dangerous by itself [I also heard from several other accounts that number of common driving accidents due to enforced speed is very high in this war, especially directly behind the front]. Also despite many people demanding Ukrainians getting on the offensive (material was recorded before it) he says this small tactic is exteremely costly for Russians, so we should not expect in this war "massess of armour that will break the front, which will lead to nothing, them being sorrounded and suffering extra casualties". Instead they kill Russians at very high rate every day, devastate their logistics and only later will be able to penetrate the front [Nice practical translation of @TheCaptain theories about "attrition to manouvre" and internal fractures that lead to RU collapse].

6. As a rule they were often outnumbered and almost always outgunned; it stand out that front is often very thinly manned and soldiers dispersed, like a weak team solely holding even large village. Russians also visibly improved their tactic over time- they tried night infiltration, learned how to sneak over the minefields and tried to lure his team in the open. Still, his opinion on them as soldiers is low. There are very detailed desciptions of small unit actions, for example when his platoon defended a village against Russian assault for two sleepless nights, resulting only in 29 eliminated Russians and BMP.

7. Very high regard for Ukrainian determination- especially in June, he says army was basically holding only on its morale and sheer middle finger energy. Even "QRF" elite units in his sector lacked any heavy weapons except several rusty RPG's, they were constantly observed by several drones at once and subjected to constant artillery barrage. Still, they usually defeated muscovite assaults. In one such actions they were aided on flank with 7-man Ukrainian recon team from HQ, armed only with small weapons that successfully stand against armoured assault. Visible recogntition of morale as deciding factor here; for example cases of wounded soldiers leaving hospitals to join collegues at the front are common.

8.Very often they participated in "emergency" missions to plug the whole or counterattack; in one of such they have 17 men to stop expected massive assault of entire BTG and were suddenly joined by colonel, who took rifle and manned the trench with them (attack didn't came in the end). High opinion of Ukrainian officers, who usually share the same burden as common soldiers, in contrast to Russian practices. Also international troops who get this far are only crack volunteers with right psyche determined to stay in the fight- despite witnessing fires no NATO soldier ever ecnountered they get used to this situation and learned how to behave. He notes that other volunteers, not less professional, brave or skilled in direct combat, simply did not have nerves to be in this kind of war and left [another common thrope- even long wartime service in NATO armies did not provide them with adequate experience against heavy fires].

9. This soldier, just as many other volunteers and Ukrainians, is visibly shocked by bestiality of Russian way of war- it is beyond just Bucha and Irpien, but in every village and town atrocities are common, there are also often civilians lying dead in countryside or murdered on roads. He descibes a situation when Russians purposfully shoot passing cars but initially targeting only backseats. Drivers speed up to escape, they take the turn and meet a hidden defence point when they are frontally gunned down in group. This way many cars created a barricade from vehicles and dead civilians that blocked the road in case of Ukrainian advance. Such behaviour of course only stiffened Ukrainian morale.

Ok, sorry for long post. There is another interview with sgt. Krzysztof X that came out several days ago when he give details of offensive in Kharkiv, if you will be interested I may sum up his experiences.

So it is okay to punish an entire people after all. Well, well, well.
Apart from that I remember fierce and indignant discussions about qualifications such as "Japs" or "Orcs" on this site. But it still okay to call the Germans "Huns"?
Double standards, as usual. And no moderator in sight. Fortunately I'm not into complaining about people by reporting them. So childish.

I'm happy to see fresh batch of "how dare the Ukranians be racist against Russians by calling them barbaric" from people living far away from Russia is well timed with fresh batch of Russian atrocities: Ukraine Army Discovers Mutilated Bodies With 'Genitals Cut Off' During Mop-Up Operations https://www.ibtimes.com/ukraine-army-discovers-mutilated-bodies-genitals-cut-off-during-mop-operations-3614606
But sure, keep talking about being angry at Russians is the true evil here.

They tried to hit a nuclear power plant. I do not find this funny. We just can be glad they hit nothing important. This is a new level of escalation. I just hope the criminals will get everything they deserve.

They tried to hit a nuclear power plant. I do not find this funny. We just can be glad they hit nothing important. This is a new level of escalation. I just hope the criminals will get everything they deserve.