WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia

A harrowing and graphic account of the war, from a Ukrainian soldier. Below is an edited translation (courtesy of The Moon of Alabama).

(Note: 300 is the military designation for wounded people, 200 is for dead soldiers.)

Original article: https://censor.net/ua/resonance/3358...sky_myasorubka

:flower:

Pisky - The Meat Grinder

Author: Serhiy Gnezdilov

What is there to lose, what else can be taken from me on the sixth day of my personal hell, in Pisky, a kilometer from the first street of Donetsk, Ukraine? The bodies of those who were dearer to me than my family are lying under the heat in the trenches, broken by 152 caliber. As I wrote earlier, 6,500 shells per damn village in less than a day.
It's been six such days already, and I can't imagine how even a small number of our infantry survived in this barrage of enemy fire.
No, I'm not whining.
Two mortars 82 and 120 are working on our side.
Sometimes they wake up and "sneeze" two artillery barrels in the direction of Donetsk.
We hardly respond. There is no counter-battery fire, from the word go, the enemy puts artillery shells in our trenches without any problems, dismantles very strong, concrete positions in tens of minutes, pushing our defense line without pause or minimal rest.
The day before yesterday, the line broke, and a river of 200 or 300 [killed/wounded] was poured. I will not publish any statistics, it is forbidden in our country, but you have no idea the number and percentage of losses.
This is a hell of a meat grinder, where the battalion simply holds back the onslaught with their bodies.
For almost a week, we have been waiting for at least some kind of help that would hit the enemy's artillery, we, I repeat, are being fired with impunity with everything that the Russian military system is rich in, their aviation was working today.
I am proud of the leadership of the battalion that remained here with us. The combatant is with us, everyone is with us, contused, light 300, bandaged and returned after a couple of hours to the position, if you can call these bottomless ravines that way.
There is a war going on.
But without a counter-battery fight, it turns into a senseless meat grinder, where an insane amount of our infantry is ground up in a day.
Did you really want the truth? Here it is, the naked truth.
The reserve goes to the position, closes the breakthrough, and after five minutes, only one of the 15 people remains intact.
The bodies lie on the ground. If it's a light 300, maybe you'll be lucky, you'll faint, and you'll get out on foot, you'll reach the medics.
They just took a 300 [wounded]. He shouted all the way: - "Where is the support? Where is the artillery? Why were we abandoned? Why didn't anyone cover us?"
I don't know, my friend, why no one covered us... He screams, and I'm ashamed that I'm still safe and sound, only a couple of good deafening.
I threw up, I pissed myself, I'm sorry, and I'm back in action.
All reserves are destroyed, military equipment is on fire, the enemy approaches and without any problems occupies our positions after another barrage of artillery.
Right now we are losing Pisky, all our human and material resources are almost exhausted.
Denys, a resident of Mariupol, who told me "well, I trust the arrestee [Zelenski advisor Arestovich], we will return everything back very soon" is dead. He was wounded twice, they bandaged him right in the trench, they told him, Denchyk, go to the evacuation, but he answered "guys, I will not abandon you."
Both wounded for the first time, and after the second wounding, he continued to shoot back.
We still haven't taken his body. On the ruins of Pisky, he lies with his arms outstretched and his gaze frozen. He asks for revenge. How can I refuse his latest request? How can we all leave Dan?
I believe that Dimka survived after all. Because he could not die, having recently returned from the hospital, having just proposed to his girlfriend. They say that after one of the parishes he simply disappeared. It fell asleep with earth. But, I believe that this is a mistake, and he is alive. Foolish hope and expectation.
I know, my country does not like to think aloud. But, I was left with no choice between victory and arrest. The truth should be heard, not whispers in the kitchen. Of course, he will fly separately for this post, because how? Yes, does the state lie to its own citizens?
I won't be surprised if someone says today: "Kremlin agent Sirozh talked about the brilliant plan of the victors on the Donetsk front, let's hang him on the peacemaker."
I amused to say that everything is under control. Now in Pisky, everything is not under anyone's control, but for some reason the situation is being hushed up.
Ring broken bells while we cover Pisky with bodies.
We need artillery.
Give us something here to hold on to.

Following that execrable creature Mensch's doxxing of Eva Bartlett recently, it doesn't come as too much of a surprise that the hotel in which she and a great many other journalists were stationed should have been the target of the demented AFU and their orcs.

Apparently Eva had been in the room that was hit but 10 minutes before.

Eva provides an update here:

Source: https://twitter.com/EvaKBartlett/sta...24144120438784

Zelensky fury as Amnesty International accuses UKRAINE of endangering civilians' lives...

Amnesty report listed incidents in which it said Ukrainian forces appeared to have put civilians in harm's way by establishing bases in residential areas
It even went as far to call on Ukraine to move forces way from populated areas
Zelensky equated this to victim blaming, saying no Russian attacks are justified
Others also hit out at Amnesty, including Ukraine's foreign minister and an MP
Many pointed out that the reason Kyiv's forces are in cities is to defend them
Ukraine's Amnesty team said their concerns over the report were ignored
Russia's UK embassy immediately leapt on the report, writing that it was 'exactly what Russia has been saying all along'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ans-lives.html

https://twitter.com/Russ_Warrior/sta...46415891623937

https://twitter.com/Russ_Warrior/sta...46773762220032

https://t.me/DonbassDevushka/17443

Ukrainian channels are discussing what might be a leaked data from AFU General Staff:

- The AFU are only 43-48% complete;
- medical workers at the limit of their strength: the seriously wounded are transported to Europe;
- small arms and bulletproof vests are not enough;
- about 191 thousand soldiers were killed and wounded;
- there is not enough hydraulics and liquid nitrogen for M777 howitzers;
- no one cares about the missing - there are no statistics;
- the equipment transferred by the West is running out;
- Western weapons are operated by amateurs, since there are no qualified specialists;
- there is no way to repair weapons on the spot due to the lack of spare parts and specialists - everything is sent to Poland;
– the moral and psychological state of the Ukrainian military is practically at zero: even campaigns of encouragement in social networks and concerts do not help.

Thus, judging by the leaked information, the Armed Forces of Ukraine in their deplorable state will not last long.

@rosich_rus
t.me/DonbassDevushka
/17443

https://twitter.com/NixinWolf/status...58973612466177

https://twitter.com/AZmilitary1/stat...59195637960707

https://twitter.com/AZmilitary1/stat...18170491936768

https://twitter.com/AZmilitary1/stat...20228574068736

https://twitter.com/AZmilitary1/stat...21138339504128

https://twitter.com/NixinWolf/status...34671127117824

https://twitter.com/NixinWolf/status...48664700993539

¤=[Post Update]=¤

https://twitter.com/NixinWolf/status...42913429422081

https://twitter.com/coope125/status/1555191626007453696

https://twitter.com/coope125/status/1555520940443852801

Fact that Mainstream is reporting on certain things happening for almost 6 Months (done by Ukrainian Military) now, is a sign that Ukraine outlived its usefulness and that the US is cutting Zelenskyy loose.

https://twitter.com/business/status/1555560008976302080

https://twitter.com/amnesty/status/1555102965337567232

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/ne...ger-civilians/


Ukraine: Ukrainian fighting tactics endanger civilians

Military bases set up in residential areas including schools and hospitals
Attacks launched from populated civilian areas
Such violations in no way justify Russia’s indiscriminate attacks, which have killed and injured countless civilians


Ukrainian forces have put civilians in harm’s way by establishing bases and operating weapons systems in populated residential areas, including in schools and hospitals, as they repelled the Russian invasion that began in February, Amnesty International said today.

Such tactics violate international humanitarian law and endanger civilians, as they turn civilian objects into military targets. The ensuing Russian strikes in populated areas have killed civilians and destroyed civilian infrastructure.

“We have documented a pattern of Ukrainian forces putting civilians at risk and violating the laws of war when they operate in populated areas,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General.

“Being in a defensive position does not exempt the Ukrainian military from respecting international humanitarian law.”

Not every Russian attack documented by Amnesty International followed this pattern, however. In certain other locations in which Amnesty International concluded that Russia had committed war crimes, including in some areas of the city of Kharkiv, the organization did not find evidence of Ukrainian forces located in the civilian areas unlawfully targeted by the Russian military.

Between April and July, Amnesty International researchers spent several weeks investigating Russian strikes in the Kharkiv, Donbas and Mykolaiv regions. The organization inspected strike sites; interviewed survivors, witnesses and relatives of victims of attacks; and carried out remote-sensing and weapons analysis.

Throughout these investigations, researchers found evidence of Ukrainian forces launching strikes from within populated residential areas as well as basing themselves in civilian buildings in 19 towns and villages in the regions. The organization’s Crisis Evidence Lab has analyzed satellite imagery to further corroborate some of these incidents.

Most residential areas where soldiers located themselves were kilometres away from front lines. Viable alternatives were available that would not endanger civilians – such as military bases or densely wooded areas nearby, or other structures further away from residential areas. In the cases it documented, Amnesty International is not aware that the Ukrainian military who located themselves in civilian structures in residential areas asked or assisted civilians to evacuate nearby buildings – a failure to take all feasible precautions to protect civilians.

Launching strikes from populated civilian areas

Survivors and witnesses of Russian strikes in the Donbas, Kharkiv and Mykolaiv regions told Amnesty International researchers that the Ukrainian military had been operating near their homes around the time of the strikes, exposing the areas to retaliatory fire from Russian forces. Amnesty International researchers witnessed such conduct in numerous locations.

International humanitarian law requires all parties to a conflict to avoid locating, to the maximum extent feasible, military objectives within or near densely populated areas. Other obligations to protect civilians from the effects of attacks include removing civilians from the vicinity of military objectives and giving effective warning of attacks that may affect the civilian population.

The mother of a 50-year-old man killed in a rocket attack on 10 June in a village south of Mykolaiv told Amnesty International: “The military were staying in a house next to our home and my son often took food to the soldiers. I begged him several times to stay away from there because I was afraid for his safety. That afternoon, when the strike happened, my son was in the courtyard of our home and I was in the house. He was killed on the spot. His body was ripped to shreds. Our home was partially destroyed.” Amnesty International researchers found military equipment and uniforms at the house next door.

Mykola, who lives in a tower block in a neighbourhood of Lysychansk (Donbas) that was repeatedly struck by Russian attacks which killed at least one older man, told Amnesty International: “I don’t understand why our military is firing from the cities and not from the field.” Another resident, a 50-year-old man, said: “There is definitely military activity in the neighbourhood. When there is outgoing fire, we hear incoming fire afterwards.” Amnesty International researchers witnessed soldiers using a residential building some 20 metres from the entrance of the underground shelter used by the residents where the older man was killed.

In one town in Donbas on 6 May, Russian forces used widely banned and inherently indiscriminate cluster munitions over a neighbourhood of mostly single or two-storey homes where Ukrainian forces were operating artillery. Shrapnel damaged the walls of the house where Anna, 70, lives with her son and 95-year-old mother.

Anna said: “Shrapnel flew through the doors. I was inside. The Ukrainian artillery was near my field… The soldiers were behind the field, behind the house… I saw them coming in and out… since the war started… My mother is… paralyzed, so I couldn’t flee.”

In early July, a farm worker was injured when Russian forces struck an agricultural warehouse in the Mykolaiv area. Hours after the strike, Amnesty International researchers witnessed the presence of Ukrainian military personnel and vehicles in the grain storage area, and witnesses confirmed that the military had been using the warehouse, located across the road from a farm where civilians are living and working.

While Amnesty International researchers were examining damage to residential and adjacent public buildings in Kharkiv and in villages in Donbas and east of Mykolaiv, they heard outgoing fire from Ukrainian military positions nearby.

In Bakhmut, several residents told Amnesty International that the Ukrainian military had been using a building barely 20 metres across the street from a residential high-rise building. On 18 May, a Russian missile struck the front of the building, partly destroying five apartments and damaging nearby buildings. Kateryna, a resident who survived the strike, said: “I didn’t understand what happened. [There were] broken windows and a lot of dust in my home… I stayed here because my mother didn’t want to leave. She has health problems.”

Three residents told Amnesty International that before the strike, Ukrainian forces had been using a building across the street from the bombed building, and that two military trucks were parked in front of another house that was damaged when the missile hit. Amnesty International researchers found signs of military presence in and outside the building, including sandbags and black plastic sheeting covering the windows, as well as new US-made trauma first aid equipment.

“We have no say in what the military does, but we pay the price,” a resident whose home was also damaged in the strike told Amnesty International.

Military bases in hospitals

Amnesty International researchers witnessed Ukrainian forces using hospitals as de facto military bases in five locations. In two towns, dozens of soldiers were resting, milling about, and eating meals in hospitals. In another town, soldiers were firing from near the hospital.

A Russian air strike on 28 April injured two employees at a medical laboratory in a suburb of Kharkiv after Ukrainian forces had set up a base in the compound.

Using hospitals for military purposes is a clear violation of international humanitarian law.

Military bases in schools

The Ukrainian military has routinely set up bases in schools in towns and villages in Donbas and in the Mykolaiv area. Schools have been temporarily closed to students since the conflict began, but in most cases the buildings were located close to populated civilian neighbourhoods

At 22 out of 29 schools visited, Amnesty International researchers either found soldiers using the premises or found evidence of current or prior military activity – including the presence of military fatigues, discarded munitions, army ration packets and military vehicles.

Russian forces struck many of the schools used by Ukrainian forces. In at least three towns, after Russian bombardment of the schools, Ukrainian soldiers moved to other schools nearby, putting the surrounding neighbourhoods at risk of similar attacks.

In a town east of Odesa, Amnesty International witnessed a broad pattern of Ukrainian soldiers using civilian areas for lodging and as staging areas, including basing armoured vehicles under trees in purely residential neighbourhoods, and using two schools located in densely populated residential areas. Russian strikes near the schools killed and injured several civilians between April and late June – including a child and an older woman killed in a rocket attack on their home on 28 June.

In Bakhmut, Ukrainian forces were using a university building as a base when a Russian strike hit on 21 May, reportedly killing seven soldiers. The university is adjacent to a high-rise residential building which was damaged in the strike, alongside other civilian homes roughly 50 metres away. Amnesty International researchers found the remains of a military vehicle in the courtyard of the bombed university building.

International humanitarian law does not specifically ban parties to a conflict from basing themselves in schools that are not in session. However, militaries have an obligation to avoid using schools that are near houses or apartment buildings full of civilians, putting these lives at risk, unless there is a compelling military need. If they do so, they should warn civilians and, if necessary, help them evacuate. This did not appear to have happened in the cases examined by Amnesty International.

Armed conflicts seriously hamper children’s right to education, and military use of schools can result in destruction that further deprives children of this right once the war ends. Ukraine is one of 114 countries that have endorsed the Safe Schools Declaration, an agreement to protect education amid armed conflict, which allows parties to make use of abandoned or evacuated schools only where there is no viable alternative.

Indiscriminate attacks by Russian forces

Many of the Russian strikes that Amnesty International documented in recent months were carried out with inherently indiscriminate weapons, including internationally banned cluster munitions, or with other explosive weapons with wide area effects. Others used guided weapons with varying levels of accuracy; in some cases, the weapons were precise enough to target specific objects.

The Ukrainian military’s practice of locating military objectives within populated areas does not in any way justify indiscriminate Russian attacks. All parties to a conflict must at all times distinguish between military objectives and civilian objects and take all feasible precautions, including in choice of weapons, to minimize civilian harm. Indiscriminate attacks which kill or injure civilians or damage civilian objects are war crimes.

“The Ukrainian government should immediately ensure that it locates its forces away from populated areas, or should evacuate civilians from areas where the military is operating. Militaries should never use hospitals to engage in warfare, and should only use schools or civilian homes as a last resort when there are no viable alternatives,” said Agnès Callamard.

Amnesty International contacted the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence with the findings of the research on 29 July 2022. At the time of publication, they had not yet responded.

An excellent interview by Ania K (Polish, but with excellent English, and a truly lovely person :flower: ) with American Russell Bentley, who lives in Donetsk.... about what life is like there right now.

Air-dropped Butterfly Mines & Shelling: current update from Ukraine with Russell "Texas" Bentley

https://youtube.com/watch?v=trGVJ-W9tfo

Quote:

---

Posted by Bill Ryan

A harrowing and graphic account of the war, from a Ukrainian soldier. Below is an edited translation (courtesy of The Moon of Alabama).

(Note: 300 is the military designation for wounded people, 200 is for dead soldiers.)

Original article: https://censor.net/ua/resonance/3358...sky_myasorubka

:flower:

Pisky - The Meat Grinder

Author: Serhiy Gnezdilov

What is there to lose, what else can be taken from me on the sixth day of my personal hell, in Pisky, a kilometer from the first street of Donetsk, Ukraine? The bodies of those who were dearer to me than my family are lying under the heat in the trenches, broken by 152 caliber. As I wrote earlier, 6,500 shells per damn village in less than a day.
It's been six such days already, and I can't imagine how even a small number of our infantry survived in this barrage of enemy fire.
No, I'm not whining.
Two mortars 82 and 120 are working on our side.
Sometimes they wake up and "sneeze" two artillery barrels in the direction of Donetsk.
We hardly respond. There is no counter-battery fire, from the word go, the enemy puts artillery shells in our trenches without any problems, dismantles very strong, concrete positions in tens of minutes, pushing our defense line without pause or minimal rest.
The day before yesterday, the line broke, and a river of 200 or 300 [killed/wounded] was poured. I will not publish any statistics, it is forbidden in our country, but you have no idea the number and percentage of losses.
This is a hell of a meat grinder, where the battalion simply holds back the onslaught with their bodies.
For almost a week, we have been waiting for at least some kind of help that would hit the enemy's artillery, we, I repeat, are being fired with impunity with everything that the Russian military system is rich in, their aviation was working today.
I am proud of the leadership of the battalion that remained here with us. The combatant is with us, everyone is with us, contused, light 300, bandaged and returned after a couple of hours to the position, if you can call these bottomless ravines that way.
There is a war going on.
But without a counter-battery fight, it turns into a senseless meat grinder, where an insane amount of our infantry is ground up in a day.
Did you really want the truth? Here it is, the naked truth.
The reserve goes to the position, closes the breakthrough, and after five minutes, only one of the 15 people remains intact.
The bodies lie on the ground. If it's a light 300, maybe you'll be lucky, you'll faint, and you'll get out on foot, you'll reach the medics.
They just took a 300 [wounded]. He shouted all the way: - "Where is the support? Where is the artillery? Why were we abandoned? Why didn't anyone cover us?"
I don't know, my friend, why no one covered us... He screams, and I'm ashamed that I'm still safe and sound, only a couple of good deafening.
I threw up, I pissed myself, I'm sorry, and I'm back in action.
All reserves are destroyed, military equipment is on fire, the enemy approaches and without any problems occupies our positions after another barrage of artillery.
Right now we are losing Pisky, all our human and material resources are almost exhausted.
Denys, a resident of Mariupol, who told me "well, I trust the arrestee [Zelenski advisor Arestovich], we will return everything back very soon" is dead. He was wounded twice, they bandaged him right in the trench, they told him, Denchyk, go to the evacuation, but he answered "guys, I will not abandon you."
Both wounded for the first time, and after the second wounding, he continued to shoot back.
We still haven't taken his body. On the ruins of Pisky, he lies with his arms outstretched and his gaze frozen. He asks for revenge. How can I refuse his latest request? How can we all leave Dan?
I believe that Dimka survived after all. Because he could not die, having recently returned from the hospital, having just proposed to his girlfriend. They say that after one of the parishes he simply disappeared. It fell asleep with earth. But, I believe that this is a mistake, and he is alive. Foolish hope and expectation.
I know, my country does not like to think aloud. But, I was left with no choice between victory and arrest. The truth should be heard, not whispers in the kitchen. Of course, he will fly separately for this post, because how? Yes, does the state lie to its own citizens?
I won't be surprised if someone says today: "Kremlin agent Sirozh talked about the brilliant plan of the victors on the Donetsk front, let's hang him on the peacemaker."
I amused to say that everything is under control. Now in Pisky, everything is not under anyone's control, but for some reason the situation is being hushed up.
Ring broken bells while we cover Pisky with bodies.
We need artillery.
Give us something here to hold on to.

---

https://twitter.com/Ukraine66251776/...08495423037440

https://twitter.com/TobiAyodele/stat...89692849684480

https://twitter.com/DeuNachrichten/s...93914798604288

https://twitter.com/DeuNachrichten/s...94226590572544

What about that 1.000.000 man Ukrainian counteroffensive eh? Been a blast sort of speak, yes, Pun intended!

https://emoticons.datahamster.com/ban-hump.gif

Quote:

---

Posted by Ravenlocke

https://t.me/DonbassDevushka/17443

Ukrainian channels are discussing what might be a leaked data from AFU General Staff:

- The AFU are only 43-48% complete;
- medical workers at the limit of their strength: the seriously wounded are transported to Europe;
- small arms and bulletproof vests are not enough;
- about 191 thousand soldiers were killed and wounded;
- there is not enough hydraulics and liquid nitrogen for M777 howitzers;
- no one cares about the missing - there are no statistics;
- the equipment transferred by the West is running out;
- Western weapons are operated by amateurs, since there are no qualified specialists;
- there is no way to repair weapons on the spot due to the lack of spare parts and specialists - everything is sent to Poland;
– the moral and psychological state of the Ukrainian military is practically at zero: even campaigns of encouragement in social networks and concerts do not help.

Thus, judging by the leaked information, the Armed Forces of Ukraine in their deplorable state will not last long.

@rosich_rus
t.me/DonbassDevushka
/17443

---

The Moon of Alabama discusses this in a new article.

• https://moonofalabama.org/2022/08/uk...ysis.html#more

Ukraine SitRep - Casualties Leak - Ukraine Admits Russian Breakthrough - Southern Front Paralysis

There is an report on Ukraine making the rounds that was allegedly written by the higher command of the Ukrainian army and leaked from somewhere.

https://twitter.com/snekotron/status...36747806789641

Ukrainian channels are discussing what might be a leaked data from AFU General Staff:

• The AFU are only at 43-48% strength
• medical workers at their limit
• small arms and armor are not enough
• 191 thousand soldiers were killed and wounded (only AFU, not including others)
• there is not enough hydraulics and liquid nitrogen for M777 howitzers
• no one cares about the missing - there are no statistics
• the equipment transferred by the West is running out
• western weapons are operated by amateurs, since there are no qualified specialists
• no way to repair weapons on the spot due to the lack of spares and specialists - everything is sent to Poland

BTW, even with this dire report, I would caution against predicting a decisive break in morale. As with Peski, the walking wounded are sent straight back into the trenches

There are some pictures of documents written in cyrillic script attached to the above tweet.

The documents look legit. The overall numbers and issues mentioned seem plausible to me. The high number of casualties (plus the missing) is not astonishing. It would be astonished though if the Russian army and its allies have more than one tenth of those. This is mostly an artillery war and the Russian side has had a vast superiority in guns and missiles.

I wonder about the M-777 need for hydraulic oil and nitrogen. Both are used in the hydraulic recoil mechanism of such guns.

Back when I was in the military we had similar mechanisms in our tanks. But they did not consume oil or nitrogen due to normal operation. Only larger maintenance, like changing the gun barrel, would require a readjustment of that mechanism. Is the 'light' howitzer M-777 so badly constructed that those fluids and gases can leak out and thereby become consumables?

The Ukraine has acknowledged that its main reinforced defense line west of Donetsk city has been broken:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy this week described the pressure his armed forces were under in the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine as "hell". He spoke of fierce fighting around the town of Avdiivka and the fortified village of Pisky, where Kyiv has acknowledged its Russian foe's "partial success" in recent days.

The Ukrainian military said on Thursday Russian forces had mounted at least two assaults on Pisky but that its troops had managed to repel them.

Ukraine has spent the last eight years fortifying defensive positions in Pisky, viewing it as a buffer zone against Russian-backed forces who control the city of Donetsk about 10 km (6 miles) to the southeast.

General Oleksiy Hromov told a news conference that Ukrainian forces had recaptured two villages around the eastern city of Sloviansk, but had been pushed back to the town of Avdiivka's outskirts after being forced to abandon a coal mine regarded as a key defensive position.

The Russian defence ministry confirmed its offensive.

https://www.moonofalabama.org/13i/donetzkmap.jpg

Source: LiveUAmap

Everything red on the left of the red line marks recent progress. It looks small but was achieved against the most fortified positions the Ukrainian side had.

Here is an aerial view of a part of Pisky.

https://www.moonofalabama.org/13i/pisky2.jpg

There are ditches (black lines) everywhere and after eight years of artillery war all houses have been more or less destroyed. Still their basements are good fighting positions which are difficult to overcome.

The breakthrough happened after the Ukraine had moved many artillery units from the Donetsk to the southern front. That also explains the lack of counter-battery fire in the east an eyewitness recently lamented about.

Ukraine is still dreaming of a counter-offensive in the south:

Ukraine said the Russian offensive in the east looked like an attempt to force it to divert troops from the south where Kyiv's forces are trying to retake territory and destroy Russian supply lines as a prelude to a wider counter-offensive. "The idea is to put military pressure on us in Kharkiv, Donetsk and Luhansk over the next few weeks ... What is happening in the east is not what will determine the outcome of the war," Ukrainian Presidential Adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said in an interview on YouTube.

Arestovych is of course wrong. The war was decided in the east when the Ukrainian military followed its bosses orders and moved everything it had to that front. That gave the Russian artillery the chance to take it apart. The Ukrainian tactic, ordered from above, was to hold onto every position until it was completely destroyed. A more mobile defense would likely have been more effective and would have cost less casualties.

The units that Ukraine pulled back from Donbas and has send down to Kherson for its 'million men' offensive were already heavily mauled. They have now been waiting for weeks for the offensive to launch. Meanwhile Russian missiles have hit several of those repositioned units and caused a high numbers of fresh casualties. The removal of Ukrainian artillery from the Donetsk line allowed for the breakthrough at that line.

The long time it took for all that repositioning to happen has also given time for the Russian forces to strengthen its troops around Kherson. There are by now sufficient numbers for the Russian's to launch their own offensive in the area.

General Hromov said Russia might launch its own offensive in the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson to try to win back momentum in the war after building up its forces there.

The general got that right. The Russian offensive in the south may launch as early as next week.

There seems to be again a disagreement between the Zelensky regime and the general staff of the armed forces of Ukraine.

The general staff knows that a counter-offensive against Kherson makes no sense as it would cost many more casualties and is likely to be defeated.

https://www.moonofalabama.org/13i/artymap.jpg
Source: Military Land

(Under NATO symbology friendly artillery is marked as a rectangle with a fat dot in the middle. An X above says the unit is a brigade. Three vertical lines mark a (smaller) regiment and two a (smaller) battalion.)

I count 4 Ukrainian artillery brigades and three artillery regiments on the southern front. There is currently only one artillery brigade on the eastern front. While mechanized brigades in the east have their own organic artillery units those do not have the big guns that can do the counter-battery fire.

The general staff does not want to attack in the south. It wants to move a least some of the artillery brigades there back to the Donetsk line.

But Zelensky and his crew want to prevent the referendums that will be held next month in Kherson and other regions under Russian control. That is why they are pushing for a counter-attack there.

The disagreement has paralyzed the Ukrainian army. The units sitting in the south waiting for orders while they get decimated by daily Russian missile strikes. This while they are urgently needed in the east.

Zelensky and Arestovych may be good at making movies. Military geniuses they are certainly not.

• Why Do They Keep Silent About Children Trafficking in Ukraine?

• article (Dutch 🇳🇱 + Multi-Language Options). 🦜🦋🌳

Quote:

---

Posted by Ravenlocke

- there is no way to repair weapons on the spot due to the lack of spare parts and specialists - everything is sent to Poland;

---

Yes, it is.

Sputnik Arabic went halfway through setting up a $400k arms deal on the dark web.

"Weapons Ukraine", however, slipped that the weapons will be loaded onto a ship by their "allies in Poland". The arms dealer also provided a Russian-written map with a hand-drawn estimate of the ship’s route. According to the map, the transit will depart from a port in Portugal, go around the African continent and arrive in Yemen. The shop's owner did not elaborate on how the guns are going to make it from Ukraine to Poland and then onto Portugal.



See how worried they are about U. N. inspections of smuggling on humanitarian vessels?

This was mostly U. S.-made M4 assault rifles being sold for double the normal price. The seller claims to have already made thirty-two similar transactions. At volume, you get free ammo and some grenades.

It sounds like the Poles are the main escape hatch for stuff that can pretty much be given to anyone in the world.


Too big to smuggle = try to dump it on people in Donbass.

Eight years of concrete fortifications = destroyed and overrun at will.

Military purpose of Ukraine Armed Forces = nothing.