How Hot is Ukraine Gonna Get?

[Haiduk]

2 minutes ago, Letter from Prague said:

So when Russia says "we are evacuating people from Kherson" are they talking about collaborators and Russian soldiers or is this the new euphemism for forced resettlement and slave-raid that they always did, that for some reason Western media still reprints as "evacuation"?

Locals write in twitter rhat most of people, who evacuate are pensioners and so-called "zhduny" (derived from meme art "The One Who Wait") - the people, which wait of Russian power incoming or just indifferent people ("no matter which flag"), which scare for your lives. Before a war Kherson had about 280 000 of population. Russians claimed they are planning to evacuate 40-60 000. 

Russians also established again "barge bridge" under damaged Antonivskyi bridge - this can incease transfer capability.

 

[TheVulture]

Semi on-topic, but Eastory youtube channel (WW2 eastern front oriented channel) has put up a video on the role of the Donbas region in the Russian civil war (1918/19) and in WW2, with a view to suggesting why it might be important terrain in the current war.

 

 

[Haiduk]

10 minutes ago, Chibot Mk IX said:

Looks like Russian intensified the SEAD/DEAD mission recently. Can't remember where the original source is, but I read the Russian increase the IL-22 EW aircraft sorties a lot ,  not sure if that's the cause.

Or maybe it's just because Ukraine side move SAM units forward, to protect the offensive in Kherson region?

Peremoha village of Mykolaiv oblast - about 20 km to frontline

Novostepnians'ke of Zaporizhzhia oblast - about 30 km to frontline

[acrashb]

22 minutes ago, Haiduk said:

Russians also established again "barge bridge" under damaged Antonivskyi bridge - this can incease transfer capability.

Looks like a scared child hiding behind its parent.  Of course, I'd build the barge bridge there too - because if I was the barge bridge... I'd be scared.

Seems to me that a few more rounds where there are already holes in the overlaying bridge would do the job.

[Haiduk]

@sburke

Major Rishat Izatulin, 228th MRR of 90th tank division, Central military district. This guy participated in the war since first days and was wounded three times, but light (interesting, that despite most of injuries of this war caused by artillery, he all three times was wounded by small-arms fire). Was killed on 12th of Oct.

 

 

 

[FancyCat]

i will point out urban combat is absolutely horrid for non-combatants, especially since Russian military don't have much respect or willingness to abide by IHL, many people fleeing may be pro-Russian, many might well need to flee simply to escape the absolutely most horrible scenario of a urban defensive battle that goes out for weeks, as Mariupol shows, civilians suffer very badly in those conditions. 

I only hope they aren't filtered too much, and can escape from Russia back to the EU.

[akd]

19 minutes ago, Haiduk said:

Major Rishat Izatulin,

@sburke

Pretty sure he was previously reported, but his last name was misspelled.

[chrisl]

3 hours ago, RockinHarry said:

Hm... would be an interesting case for LIDAR equipped drones (theoretically). They´re very successful in finding ancient fortifications, settlements and past terrain alterations for archaeology. So any recently built combat positions will be easy finds for them. How much these would be practical in a combat environment.... IDK.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lidar

LiDAR has also been used in many autonomous driving systems for building up the 3D world model.  At least a few (like Tesla) are trying to do cameras only for various reasons.

[chuckdyke]

I didn't know this one even towed howitzer don't need a truck to reposition. These can travel up to 20 km by themselves.

 

[Fenris]

Second clip shows intercept from another angle.  There's a hint of something very fast coming in from the right.  Should be uploaded somewhere soon I suppose.

 

[MSBoxer]

I am going to attribute this to my general pessimistic "Russia is capable of any atrocity" mind set, but I can't stop thinking that Russia is withdrawing their troops from the right bank and have left a tactical nuke or other WMD behind to activate once Ukranian forces have occupied. Their goal would be to destroy UK forces and blame UK for the first use of WMD.

This is obviously a highly unlikely scenario, but it is stuck in my neural net.

[Calamine Waffles]

59 minutes ago, chuckdyke said:

I didn't know this one even towed howitzer don't need a truck to reposition. These can travel up to 20 km by themselves.

 

Yes, some towed howitzers have this feature, like the Finnish 155 GH 52 APU and Bofors FH 77, although they are slower.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haubits_FH77

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/155_GH_52_APU

[JonS]

If Putin decides to continue upping the nuclear rhetoric, my guess is that he'll nuke Russia first.

In other words, a full-up "system test"/demonstration, either air or artillery delivered onto a target *within Russia*. An atmospheric "test" would still be breaking a decades long taboo, but since they just nuked themselves ... what are you gonna do?

They implicit message, of course, would be "See? We have nukes, they work, so do our delivery systems, and we are clearly prepared to break nuclear taboos. So, are you feeling lucky?"

Edited October 19, 2022 by JonS

[sburke]

2 hours ago, akd said:

@sburke

Pretty sure he was previously reported, but his last name was misspelled.

yep we had it as Izatullin.  Thanks for catching

Edited October 19, 2022 by sburke

[sburke]

1 hour ago, MSBoxer said:

I am going to attribute this to my general pessimistic "Russia is capable of any atrocity" mind set, but I can't stop thinking that Russia is withdrawing their troops from the right bank and have left a tactical nuke or other WMD behind to activate once Ukranian forces have occupied. Their goal would be to destroy UK forces and blame UK for the first use of WMD.

This is obviously a highly unlikely scenario, but it is stuck in my neural net.

that would be tough as Ukraine has no nukes.

[Fenris]

Lots of M113s

 

[Beleg85]

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.

 

Edited October 20, 2022 by Beleg85

[MSBoxer]

12 minutes ago, sburke said:

that would be tough as Ukraine has no nukes.

I know that, and you know that, but does that matter to Putin?

That is also why I expanded to WMD in general.  Should be easy to fake with all of the US sponsored BIO labs laying around that area.

[chrisl]

1 hour ago, JonS said:

If Putin decides to continue upping the nuclear rhetoric, my guess is that he'll nuke Russia first.

In other words, a full-up "system test"/demonstration, either air or artillery delivered onto a target *within Russia*. An atmospheric "test" would still be breaking a decades long taboo, but since they just nuked themselves ... what are you gonna do?

They implicit message, of course, would be "See? We have nukes, they work, so do our delivery systems, and we are clearly prepared to break nuclear taboos. So, are you feeling lucky?"

The thing I’ve been wondering is where they would do such a test.  The main Soviet test range was in Kazakhstan, but I bet they aren’t interested in renting it back out to Vlad.  

[JonS]

Russia is quite big - I'm sure the can find somewhere

[Kinophile]

7 hours ago, Beleg85 said:

17th UA Tank Brig. and 128th Mountain Brigade (for some time main "badboys" in Russian narration, beyond of course Azov and nationalist battalions) attacking as spearhead from two directions in Davydyv Bridge and Chervony Yar areas, under dense umbrella of artillery and airforce.

I suspect Ukraine have not just solved for Offensive, but also for Opponent Mental Bandwidth*.

Russia is always very slow in coordinating against two disparate attacks, from operational all the way down to tactical. With enough time (read: far too much) it does eventually get there, but by then its more a question of if the attacker has temporarily worn itself out rather than any institutional ability in the local Stavka. Sheep-Bothering and Washing Machine Relocation will do that do an organization...

* @The_Capt I'm sure you have the appropriate noun?

[sburke]

12 minutes ago, JonS said:

Russia is quite big - I'm sure the can find somewhere

I vote they use the Kremlin!  

[Vet 0369]

On 10/18/2022 at 2:48 PM, Battlefront.com said:

Yup, totally expected.  The Republican members of the House are traditionally anti-foreign aid and isolationist, with some exceptions (weapon sales being one of them).  A separate faction, which shares this mindset, is also overtly Pro-Russian.  Together they make a pretty large chunk of the Republican caucus and the leadership is expressing its interest in following their lead.  There will be few Republicans that vote against leadership as independent decision making is actively discouraged.

The most problematic aspect is that if the Republicans regain control of the House they will have the "gavel".  This means that they get to set the agenda and voting schedule.  If they want to delay a vote on a particular bill, they have easy means to do it whereas right now they do not.

This might sound like political partisan statements, but it isn't.  If I were going to make it so I would have put in my own opinions instead of stating very simple, easily proven facts.  Instead, I'm pointing out that some degree of aid to Ukraine is going to be in doubt if the Republicans regain the House.  The pro-Ukrainian Senate and White House can only do so much without approval of the House.  Those here who don't have a solid grasp of US domestic politics need to be informed about this so when it happens there won't be shock.

Steve

I’m not surprised at all about the possibility of the U.S. House of Representatives flipping in these mid-term elections. In my half century plus of voting in U.S. elections, the party opposite of the President tends to gain more seats in the House. When the President’s party also controls both houses of Congress (the House and Senate), the opposition tends to flip the House. I think U.S. voters as a whole want at least some “balance” in the Legislative Branch so one Party can’t “run roughshod” over the other, and can’t ”run amok” passing legislation that’s either “far left” or ‘far right.”

[Calamine Waffles]

49 minutes ago, Beleg85 said:

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.

 

Oh that is good, may I use your translation for something I am writing? I will credit you of course (using pseudonym or real name as you wish)

[Beleg85]

2 minutes ago, Calamine Waffles said:

Oh that is good, may I use your translation for something I am writing? I will credit you of course (using pseudonym or real name as you wish)

No problem, just mind it is not 1:1 translation but rather essence of what was said. There are perhaps autotranslation tools able to give you more detailed view.