War Machine

[Odds]

FPV drones are doing a hell of a lot of work. Ukraine has been using them more heavily than Russia by all accounts, especially Russian ones.

They generally can't kill a MBT but they can sometimes cripple one and often get used to destroy an immobilised one that's had it's hatches left open.

They're murder on BMPs and the unarmoured vehicles Russia is having to use due to their lack of armour and have even managed to immobilise Bradleys.

If you scan the TWZ page there's all kinds of footage showing how easy it is to destroy millions of dollars worth of state-of-the-art armour in the blink of an eye. Even something as simple as dropping a grenade from a great height through an open turret hatch. A US general states he's never known anything like it: in Iraq or Afghanistan, he never had to look up on a battlefield. Until now.

 

[Odds]

Between July 9 and July 12, Russian troops completed the conquest of Kanal Microraion, the eastern extremity of Chasiv Yar, which has been particularly fiercely fought over. The reason is that Chasiv Yar is key to advancing against the last remaining bastions of Ukrainian defence in western Donetsk – the cities of Konstiantynivka, Kramatorsk and Sloviansk. To capture Kanal Microraion, an area three blocks wide and three blocks deep, Ukrainian Deputy Defence Minister Ivan Havrylyuk said Russian forces suffered 5,000 casualties.

On July 11, the General Assembly voted 99-to-9 in favour of a motion calling on Russia to unilaterally end its war of aggression and withdraw its soldiers from Ukrainian territory – releasing the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station from its grasp. A year into the war, 141 nations backed a similar call. In September 2022, 143 nations condemned Russia’s formal annexation of four Ukrainian regions. Russia blames NATO for its aggression. Deputy head of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev said in an interview on Wednesday that “Ukraine’s admission [to NATO] … in essence is a declaration of war, albeit a deferred one.”

 

[Odds]

“In June, the Russian army lost more than 1,400 artillery systems, more than 600 armoured fighting vehicles, almost 360 tanks. These are unprecedented losses. And what are the achievements on the battlefield?” wrote Deputy Defence Minister Ivan Havrylyuk in a July 9 article. Russian forces also advanced northwest of Avdiivka, a city they captured in February, and in the direction of Toretsk. Along with Chasiv Yar, these three fronts lie within 40km (25 miles) of each other, and form the main thrust of Russian advance in Ukraine.

Elsewhere on the thousand-kilometre front, the Russians were stalemated, but that does not mean they didn’t suffer heavy losses. Viktor Solimchuk, commander of the tactical group “Kharkiv” defending the area, told reporters that Russian casualties since May amounted to 2,939 killed and 6,509 wounded.

 

[Odds]

Ukraine plans to raise a quarter of a million new troops this year, but training and equipping them will take time. A senior NATO official told The New York Times that Ukraine would not be able to mount a large-scale counteroffensive until next year.

 

[Odds]

After 888 days The first batch of long-awaited F-16 fighter jets, which are equipped with a 20mm cannon and can carry bombs, rockets and missiles, have arrived in Ukraine. “F-16s in Ukraine. Another impossible thing turned out to be totally possible,” Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis wrote on X.

In other news German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier asked the Polish people for forgiveness during observances Wednesday marking the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising, saying Germans must never forget the immeasurable suffering inflicted on the neighboring nation.

(Nobody can forget while JohnnyDee's around to remind them.)

Ukraine’s military intelligence agency has claimed it was involved in an ambush that killed fighters from Russia’s Wagner group in the west African nation of Mali, thousands of miles away from the frontline in Ukraine. A Telegram Channel linked to leadership of the group said Wagner and the Malian armed forces had “fought fierce battles” over a five-day period against a coalition of Tuareg separatist forces and jihadi groups, who had used heavy weapons, drones and suicide bombers. Numerous Wagner fighters, including a commander, Sergei Shevchenko, were killed, the channel said. Ukrainian forces are believed to be active in Sudan, another place where Wagner troops have been heavily involved in fighting, in a further sign that Kyiv’s fight with Moscow has taken on a global dimension.

As the war drags on, Ukraine's own 'Monuments Men' are saving the country's art heritage for future generations - a long read@the Guardian.

 

[JohnD]

Reporting from
London
3 August 2024, 17:28 BST



Updated 6 hours ago
"Ukraine's military says it attacked and destroyed a Russian submarine while it was anchored at a port in the occupied Crimean peninsula.

The Rostov-on-Don, a kilo-class attack submarine launched in 2014, sank after it was struck in a missile attack on the port city of Sevastopol on Friday, Ukraine's general staff said in a statement.

It was reportedly one of four submarines operated by Russia's Black Sea fleet capable of launching Kalibr cruise missiles. The Russian defence ministry has not commented.

Officials in Kyiv said the attack also destroyed four S-400 air defence systems protecting the peninsula, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014."

BBC

 

[fillyboy]

Reporting from
London
3 August 2024, 17:28 BST



Updated 6 hours ago
"Ukraine's military says it attacked and destroyed a Russian submarine while it was anchored at a port in the occupied Crimean peninsula.

The Rostov-on-Don, a kilo-class attack submarine launched in 2014, sank after it was struck in a missile attack on the port city of Sevastopol on Friday, Ukraine's general staff said in a statement.

It was reportedly one of four submarines operated by Russia's Black Sea fleet capable of launching Kalibr cruise missiles. The Russian defence ministry has not commented.

Officials in Kyiv said the attack also destroyed four S-400 air defence systems protecting the peninsula, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014."

BBC

Woopy doo.