The War in the Ukraine

[Cult Icon]

It seems to me that Russia is trying to exploit the tying down of the Ukrainian army at Bakhmut and make some territorial gains in Z-Oblast.

The battle of Vuheldar looks to be:

Ukrainian 72th and 68th brigades vs. elements of 40th and 155th Naval infantry brigade plus DPR elements.

Vuhledar is on high ground, with high rises that overlook steppe country in three directions. It is also approx. 70 KM (straight-line) north of Mariupol. The Vuhledar salient has no 'little stalingrads' outside of the city.

The taking of the Vuheldar would open up possibilities in three directions. This battle looks like a preliminary/shaping operation.

Past couple days the left wing of Z-Oblast has the Russians testing Ukrainian defenses, and the information environment seems to be very confused. There is a possibility that there was misinformation reported about starting the Orikhiv battle. This could have been part of a deception operation, as the main objective was Vuheldar.

 

[HighGround]

Vuhledar's heights would be helpful for a further operation by the looks of it.

But if it was so important, why haven't more forces been committed? Though, to be fair, there isn't a lot of high quality footage or reporting coming out of Vuhledar yet.

 

[Atomicfrog]

Vuhledar's heights would be helpful for a further operation by the looks of it.

But if it was so important, why haven't more forces been committed? Though, to be fair, there isn't a lot of high quality footage or reporting coming out of Vuhledar yet.

I think the russian poked it and decided that more artillery grinding was necessary. Lots of stuff was still upright in last few footages. With enough ATGM, not a lot of armored vehicles can risk to go in without being targeted.

 

[Tam]

Exactly what I was talking about in previous pages regarding FPV drones, may not pose much of a danger to tanks, but the allure of a squad level, low cost high accuracy 'smart' projectile can ruin the day of anything from infantry clusters to APCs. Visibility from within armoured vehicles are probably too poor to notice the incoming drone until it is right about to hit.

Excuse the title, but the below video is a good example of the work that this type of drone is currently doing on the field. It doesn't seem noticeably slowed down by the payload either.

The problem of this is that you cannot verify or confirm the success of the attack.

The Lancet uses a HEAT warhead that jets at the same direction as the body. This isn't true of a quadcopter that has a bomb charge tied to it. In fact it's more than possible that an armored vehicle will survive the attack especially if the vehicle is driving on a direction away from the drone's flight path, like in this video.

Even the Russians don't trust what the Lancet drone camera says and always have a second drone observing to confirm the kill. Certainly not the case here. The drone could have crashed at the moment of impact and not exploded.

 

[Tam]

This video shows Russian Marines of the 155th on a road in Ugledar. I thing this is somewhere in the southeast suburbs. Caveat however, the situation is fluid as the Ukrainians are throwing in every reserve they got. This has all the smell of the Russians attacking then withdrawing to bait the Ukrainians into a concentrated mass, then marking the area as a kill zone for artillery and thermobaric weapons, a tactic they have used often.

 

[Cult Icon]

Vuhledar's heights would be helpful for a further operation by the looks of it.

But if it was so important, why haven't more forces been committed? Though, to be fair, there isn't a lot of high quality footage or reporting coming out of Vuhledar yet.

I would expect to see more forces committed if they take the city. The steppe country would likely more forces to exploit the terrain. Of course if that happens Ukraine will send more brigades to contest the Russian breakout. Or maybe they will add more in the coming days.

Overall the Russians have been very stingy with using their reserves for months. They are more concerned with trying to train them.

Either the Russians get serious here or it'll turn into a never-ending semi-active front like the fortified zones up north.

 

[tankphobia]

The problem of this is that you cannot verify or confirm the success of the attack.

The Lancet uses a HEAT warhead that jets at the same direction as the body. This isn't true of a quadcopter that has a bomb charge tied to it. In fact it's more than possible that an armored vehicle will survive the attack especially if the vehicle is driving on a direction away from the drone's flight path, like in this video.

Even the Russians don't trust what the Lancet drone camera says and always have a second drone observing to confirm the kill. Certainly not the case here. The drone could have crashed at the moment of impact and not exploded.

I think lancets aren't really a squad level weapon, mostly employed against artillery pieces in the rear. Suicide drones used like this is probably more often than not within visual range.

Sure it might not pack enough of a punch to kill IFVs and such 100% of the time, but they cost like a fraction of the cost of any heavier rocket launcher, the only really compatible cost wise for explosive ordnance being the RPG-7 itself, a squad can just carry 6 or 7 of them and use them like disposable hand grenades.

 

[Temstar]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1620223223597252608

Translation:


Would this fall under the "Scraping the Barrel" by HOI4 standard?
I'm kind of surprised they don't care about family status, profession, physical or mental health but haven't relaxed the "male" part.

 

[Atomicfrog]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1620223223597252608

Translation:
View attachment 106225

Would this fall under the "Scraping the Barrel" by HOI4 standard?
I'm kind of surprised they don't care about family status, profession, physical or mental health but haven't relaxed the "male" part.

Don't care about profession ? They will go take doctor at gun point to bring them to the front ???

 

[Abominable]

Might be why all the fuses are removed. Cannot be hard to swop in some impact fuses, which you will only want to screw in just before you launch one of these.

RPGs do use percussion fuses. They've presumably been removed to be replaced with an electronic fuse.

It looks useless to me. Those commercial drones will be blocked and have an operating time measured in minutes before the battery dies. They will have a range of a few hundred metres, probably not much more than the original RPG.

Why Ukrainians are using these primative weapons is beyond me. They've received hundreds of billions worth of equipment and they still have the ISIS militant mentality. Are their generals selling everything they get on the black market?