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Ukraine: military situation update with maps, Jan 26, 2023
(’Orc’ is associated with the various hoards of 13th century Mongol invaders, as well as LOTR evil villains)

War in Ukraine Explained/Reporting from Ukraine:
https://www.youtube.com/@RFU

Artillery (key to success in this war), Fuller explanation of Orc military structure, Other Bonus articles - see previous postings in “Attack on Europe” (FR title search).

(Numbered printed material below - Some of the items below may be out of date, and not updated yet)

••Denotes Transcribed Dialogue. The entirety of the analysis is from a Ukrainian guy named Reporting from Ukraine’s daily video - I only transcribe it. Extras are just that - from other sites, or my comments marked (Edit: .... ) or { } or [ ].

-—> Current to date and past MAPS: <——
https://militaryland.net/

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Extra:
-—> This Is What M1 Abrams Tanks Will Bring To The Fight In Ukraine <——
Veteran Abrams tankers paint a picture of the great attributes and challenges M1s will bring to the fight.
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/this-is-what-m1-abrams-tanks-will-bring-to-the-fight-in-ukraine

Excerpts:
Erik Albertson, a retired U.S. Army senior non-commissioned officer who served as a tanker in all positions on the M1A1 and early versions of the M1A2 SEPv2 Abrams main battle tank. Albertson is now head of training and a WWII armor historian for WW2 Armor, a museum and organization in Central Florida

The success in those fights, where Abrams tanks survived hits with grenades, RPGs, RPKs, various other small arms, and a range of mortars including 120mm types, were a good indication, he added, for the success they can have in Ukraine.

“During our nearly 15-month deployment ... we were predominately heavy on tanks for pretty much most of the deployment. We put on thousands of kilometers on our tanks driving all around central Iraq supporting our parent division

Despite “the wear and tear on the tracks and turbine engines in the heat and sand, our Abrams kept going and was a dominating presence wherever we went,” he said. “One doesn’t realize how intimidating the Abrams, especially a platoon plus together, is until it is deployed and unleashed

“The battles such as 73 Easting, Battle of Medina Ridge, Battle of Norfolk, and Battle of Kuwait International Airport gives you a good example of what the Abrams is capable of doing to Russian tanks, up to at least back then the T-72, which is currently used in Ukraine, along with the older T-64,” Albertson said.

During Desert Storm, 23 out of some 2,000 Abrams tanks deployed to the combat zone were destroyed or damaged, according to a 1992 Government Accounting Office (GAO) report. Of the nine Abrams destroyed, seven were due to friendly fire, and two were intentionally destroyed to prevent capture after they became disabled.

How much difference can be made by 31 such tanks, enough to fill out one Ukrainian tank battalion, remains to be seen ...

...

The M1’s turbine engine consumes a massive amount of fuel anytime the engine is running ... which would be near continuously. An M-1 formation would require about 300 gallons every eight hours. Its fuel tank holds 500 gallons. Bottom line is that any formation company-sized or larger would require dedicated fuel trucks ...

That level of fuel delivery to the forward areas will be challenging for Ukrainians ... We’ll have to then also figure out how do we provide them the fuel hauling and delivery capability that’s gonna be required.

The good news is that the Abrams gas turbine engines are designed to handle a wide variety of fuels, not just jet fuel. Diesel fuel and gasoline can both be used to power the tank.

There’s an impact on fuel consumption rates. There’s an impact on maintenance time including between failures. But you can fire up the Abrams on virtually any kind of fuel.

The M-1, particularly in the type of combat it would see in eastern Ukraine, would use a lot of ammunition ... Both the 105mm and 120mm versions of the tank offer multiple ‘warhead options’ and hold significant amounts of small arms ammunition for the two 7.62 machine guns and the 50 cal machine gun. Keeping the M-1 armed, like fuel, consumes significant logistic assets.

The M1 engine/ transmission is a complex machine that does not tolerate ‘shade tree’ mechanics. The engine/transmission - known as the Full Up Power Pack or FUPP - weighs in at 2,500lb and is difficult to remove and work on. US M1 tank mechanics are well trained and resourced with repair parts and specialized tools.

Maintaining the Abrams’ electronic systems is not a major concern.

... the Abrams was built to fight in Europe ... That being said, the Ukrainian forces will require significant towing capability to recover stuck or damaged tanks that it likely does not currently possess ... Abrams package included eight M-88 Hercules recovery vehicles.

The training for new U.S. Abrams tank crew members is now 22 weeks, where it used to be 17 weeks up until a few years ago ... That is a lot of training and that is just their basic tank training and doesn’t include unit training once they arrive ... You cannot just jump on the tank and go; especially the latest versions.

The tankers equipped with the Abrams, and really any modern main battle tank such as the Leopoard, Leclerc, and Challenger, must go through extensive training both in tactics, vehicle operations, vehicle identification, maneuvers, vehicle capabilities, maintenance procedures, gunnery, etc to be a useful and successful crew. If time and training is not provided to the crews then it doesn’t matter what tank you operate.

While the Ukrainian soldiers undoubtedly have combat experience, they likely lack experience maneuvering formations at the company plus level

31: That’s the equivalent of two U.S. tank companies. By comparison, Ukraine still uses the old Soviet model, Donahue said. There are three tanks in a platoon, three platoons in a company and three companies in a battalion. The company and battalion commanders also each have one tank.

... the west - now that we’ve made the political decision to provide systems from multiple nations - the best thing we could do is pick the Abrams or the Leopard 2 system and decide if that’s the one we’re gonna field the bulk of and then field that in numbers that matter - 250 or 300 of those tanks.

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••Day 337.

The heaviest fights are taking place around Vuhledar and Bakhmut.

Today the Russians started storming Vuhledar itself, and in the first half of the day, the Russians maintained the initiative.

However, the Ukrainians made a smart decision, and instead of fighting them from the city, the Ukrainians pulled their tanks from behind the hills and entered the countryside that the Russians were leveraging.

This forced the Russians to stop attacking Vuhledar immediately and devote all their resources to resolving the problems at hand.

Last time I told you that the Russians conducted extensive artillery preparation, advanced from two directions, and started storming the outer Ukrainian positions.

As a result of yesterday’s fights, the Russians established control over the countryside just across the road from Vuhledar. Such gains allowed the Russians to start storming Vuhledar itself already in the morning.

The Russians have also advanced from the farms in Pavlivka towards another small countryside that is located equal distance from Vuhledar and Pavlivka.

This set conditions for attacking the hospital buildings on the corner that the Russians decimated yesterday with their thermobaric artillery systems.

The hospital buildings are quite isolated, as they are located around 350 meters from the main Ukrainian positions in compact blocks, so the Russians successfully capitalized on that and took control of what was left of the hospital.

But the Ukrainians were not just passively defending. The Ukrainians regrouped and started counterattacking the Russians already yesterday. And today, the intensity of Ukrainian counterattacks has only increased.

In order to undermine Russian defenses and push them away from the edges of the northern countryside, the Ukrainians advanced on tanks from behind the hills, moved halfway along the tree belts, and fired at Russian-occupied fortifications.

Under cover of heavy fire, a mobile Ukrainian attack group rapidly crossed the field and established their positions near the first blocks. From here, they managed to expand their control over the area, and now the control over the settlement is split 50/50.

This is very bad news for the Russians because they can no longer continue pushing along their main axis of advance. The presence of Ukrainian forces inside the countryside means that the Russians have to engage in positional fights, otherwise they would expose themselves while trying to cross the road.

When it comes to the Battle for Bakhmut, the last time we covered this region, the Russians concentrated their efforts on breaching the Ukrainian defense to the north of Bakhmut and taking it into a pocket. However, more than two weeks after the Russians captured Soledar, the situation did not change.

Last time we covered this region, the Russians were attacking Krasna Hora from the fields to the east and from the garden to the south, and so far, the fights are still taking place in the garden.

The Russians were also pushing toward Blahodatne from multiple sides, but as the Institute for the Study of War noted, even before the fall of Soledar, the Ukrainians had prepared an extensive line of fortifications (mainly in the form of trenches) right behind the road.

Recent reports from Russian sources mention that advances on Blahodatne from Soledar are difficult exactly for this reason. The only settlement that the Ukrainians lost here is Krasnopolivka, which is located right beside Soledar, making it extremely difficult to hold.

The stabilization of the front line to the north of Bakhmut and the concomitant lack of Russian progress is very good news, given that the situation to the south of Bakhmut has been slowly but steadily deteriorating.

Here the Russians established control over Opytne, which they had been storming for around 4 months, and they also established control over Klischivka, which they had been storming for almost 2 months. This allowed the Russians to establish fire control over one of the supply roads.

However, the Ukrainians still have another road that goes from Chasiv Yar. This is the safest road as it is located right behind Bakhmut.

Overall, a rapid attack on Vuhledar did not allow the Russians to penetrate Ukrainian defenses, and the Russians are back to positional fights, sustaining very high losses.

When it comes to Bakhmut, the Ukrainians managed to stabilize the most important part of the front line, which is around Soledar.

The latest developments indicate the Russians may be forced to shift their focus away from Bakhmut in an attempt to find defenses that are not as strong as those around Bakhmut.