The War in the Ukraine

Google Translation from link:
June 2023
Marinki district, Donetsk People's Republic, Russia.

The most powerful kamikaze drone.

Soldiers of the Russian Armed Forces captured a tank of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

They stuffed him with 6 tons of TNT and other bad booms and sent him back to Ukrainian positions on autopilot.

The tank did not reach the position of the Armed Forces of Ukraine - about a hundred meters (it blew up on a mine). The detonation occurred as a result of an RPG shot ...

Experiments with the creation of kamikaze drones continue.

Starting at 1:05, a clip showing Lancet attacks on a search radar and a fire control radar --- two separate radars --- of an S-300 complex is destroyed. Once again, the work of the obtf Kaskad unit.


Kaliber missiles launched and struck a decision making center in Kiev. Launch shown at 0.35.


TOS being employed at Avdiivka.

Tam said:

Destroyed Ukrainian equipment as the Ukrainians tried to probe the Russian 127th Division. The Russians have gone back to corps and divisions and in my view, this is helping.

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The effectiveness of Russian electronic warfare has increased. This is no longer a string of understrength battalion tactical groups and proxy forces, as there is now the 19th, 42nd, and 127th Motor-rifle divisions plus the brigades, 22nd GRU, and some separate battalions.

The divisions and brigades should be much more effective in large scale warfare and defensive combat than the battalions.

There should be Electronic warfare companies organic to the brigades. Battalions, and maybe even brigades that have effected the Ukrainian 'drone army' and the employment of enemy weapons on Russian forces.

The Russian defensive successes so far appear to be primarily related to not only their training and preparation & defensive fortifications but also combined arms and more effective organizations than last year- there are 3 divisions (127th, 19th, 42nd ) holding the defensive front besides infantry brigades, one special forces (22nd GRU) and a couple of separate volunteer battalions.

The Russian combat doctrine was designed primarily for defense against a NATO/US invasion, not offensive operations. The organic electronic warfare power of the brigades and the divisions are much greater than the battalion (company, battalion sized EW forces) and seems to have defeated Ukraine's drone army, or at least reduced its capabilities to a low level. It has also dramatically lowered the use ability for Ukraine/NATO to use HIMARS and Storm shadow missiles although some got through the EW zone. The Russian divisions and brigades also have much stronger Anti-air units supporting than the battalions of last year.

The Russians also moved forward their helicopter fleet which has a played a decisive role in knocking out AFVs with air-ground missiles and providing general support. The fighters of their Air forces are also in support.

The Ukrainian ammunition shortage has seriously effected their ability to provide important fire support to their attacking groups of infantry and AFVs, leading to poor results. The Russian side considers their casualties as being only light and 10 times smaller than their opponent.

Although the bulk of Russian front line fighters are mobilized reservists so far they have done their job, by repeatedly counterattacking and attempting to seal off breaches. They have the advantage of superior artillery and protection of defensive positions and extensive mining.

The Russians also have a self-propelled minelayer unit that can shoot and automatically generate minefields from long range. The infantry are equipped with the Fagot and other types of Anti-tank ATGM that can destroy or knock out all Western tanks in one shot from KMs away.

So far it is imperative for the Ukrainian-NATO offensive to break apart the Russian combined-arms team but so far they have not done it at all, and continue relentless but weak attacks by AFV and infantry groups. The much trumped western tanks and afvs have proven to be as low value as the Russian in the modern combat environment. I have no idea how Ukraine-nato have planned on confronting this problem outside of brute force and attacking with superior numbers.

Cult Icon said:

I have no idea how Ukraine-nato have planned on confronting this problem outside of brute force and attacking with superior numbers.

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We might see an aspect of it in the supply of F16 and F18 aircraft

And if they don't prove to be significantly effective, what next?

lucretius said:

We might see an aspect of it in the supply of F16 and F18 aircraft

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lucretius said:

We might see an aspect of it in the supply of F16 and F18 aircraft

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Problem is those planes needs airstrips and supply infrastructure.
And main usage would be restricted as flyable air defence .
Problem is in both role the Mig29 and Su27 superior compared to the western planes.
Capable to work in very bad conditions, easy to maintain, and insensitive.


Anyaway, after few decade its war finaly show that the Soviet weapons superior to the western ones.

Western advertising and design consider only one-two sapect of the weapons , Soviets considered all aspect as a weapon.

Example the F-35 stealth capability in Ukrainan field conditions would be degraded to an f-18 level in few weeks time.

And the engine life would decrease to few hundreds of hour .

Most likelly any wetern plane introduced to Ukraine would use up all spare parts and engines for that type in half year time.

Not a suprise no one talk about transfering western airplanes to Ukraine, instead try to scrap the bottom of barrel for usable Soviet planes and parts.

Weaasel said:

And if they don't prove to be significantly effective, what next?

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Well, at first they'll bi significantly effective in simply preventing Ukr. AF from disappearing altogether.
Also, as all those aircraft were updated at least in 1990s with AMRAAM capability - they're going to close the qualitative gap with RuAF, significantly.

On the other side - i frankly don't know how they want to solve the ground side of things. It's a miracle how much they fly now, but it's precisely this miracle that shows that they're struggling.
Ukrainian helicopters, su-25s and mig-29s are quite active - up to VKS standards of activity.
But Ukrainian Su-27s are notably less active, and Su-24 fleet is now for special purposes only - not just because of storm shadows, but simply because getting them into air isn't exactly simple.

OOF

Well some UKR special forces made it into a Russian trench and caused havoc. That video's up in reddit, tiktok, hell even facebook.

I wonder how representative of things on the ground it is - how often something like that happens. For example, if UKR troops really do make it to a trench system, how easily do they take it?

Also wonder where that trench is.

Also, the Russian troops seem to be conscripts. Poorly trained and equipped. They were definitely not ready for trench combat.

Fedupwithlies said:

OOF

Well some UKR special forces made it into a Russian trench and caused havoc. That video's up in reddit, tiktok, hell even facebook.

I wonder how representative of things on the ground it is - how often something like that happens. For example, if UKR troops really do make it to a trench system, how easily do they take it?

Also wonder where that trench is.

Also, the Russian troops seem to be conscripts. Poorly trained and equipped. They were definitely not ready for trench combat.

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One lucky sortie doesn’t really prove much, there are also videos of a single Russian conscript clearing out an entire Ukrainian trench. There are also videos of single/small groups of Ukrainian and Russian defenders repelling assaults by far larger enemy units. It would be foolish to take one outlier event and think that is the norm.

The only constant with trench warfare is that it’s intense, ugly, and high attritional work. The Russian guy who took the trench single-handedly died not long after storming another trench. If those Ukrainian commandos keep doing what they are doing, it will only be a matter of time before they meet the same fate.

Ukraine has, frankly, been very wasteful with its special forces, using them as frontline assault troops rather than using their full range and training, gear and capabilities. Sure, skill, training, equipment and experience will give SpecOps a significant advantage against line troops or conscripts in trench warfare, but dumb luck can be a massive leveller and no amount of training or skill will mean much against a luck grenade toss or unlucky artillery round. Storm enough trenches and death is all but guaranteed.