The Ukrainian military has revealed that a large portion of the Russian occupation administration staff was evacuated from the city of Skadovsk on the night between May 6-7 together with their families.
The Ukrainian counterattack is coming.
Ukrainian Artillery losses Running Total: 264
RuZZian Tank losses Running Total: 1937
May 2023 – 26
April 2023 – 5
March 2023 - 127
February 2023 – 118
January 2023 – 61
December 2022 – 76
November 2022 – 105
October 2022 – 212
September 2022 - 217
August 2022 – 74
July 2022 – 108
June 2022 – 67
May 2022 – 148
April 2022 – 243
Feb 24 - March 2022 – 350
RuZZian Artillery losses Running Total: 589
May 2023 – 3
April 2023 - 24
March 2023 - 37
February 2023 – 41
January 2023 – 31
December 2022 – 19
November 2022 – 55
October 2022 – 64
September 2022 - 73
August 2022 – 21
July 2022 – 21
June 2022 – 18
May 2022 – 20
April 2022 – 52
Feb 24 - March 2022 – 110
Previous day’s thread: https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/4151378/posts
Ukraine: military situation update with maps - May 7, 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(Numbered printed material below - Some of the items below may be out of date, and not updated yet)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/
-—> Daily Battle Maps by Date and Region, Showing Troop Dispositions and Movements: <——
https://deepstatemap.live/
==
-—> The True State of Russian Army <——
posted 2 months ago, 21.13 min
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KiII_2qabk
The Russian military, the second largest military in the world, may not be what it looks like. Lies and systematic corruptions may in fact have dragged Russia into this war with Ukraine, which has been heavily backed up by the US and NATO. We will present the evidence, you make your own decision, because the Russian Army, is not what you think.
==
-—> Understanding Combined Arms Warfare <——
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZOGdKANL5s
Designed to support the U.S. Army Captains Career Course, “Understanding Combined Arms Warfare” defines and outlines the important aspects of modern combined arms operations. This is not a complete history of combined arms warfare. It is intended to highlight the most important aspects of the subject.
The beginning of the documentary establishes a common understanding of combined arms warfare by discussing doctrinal and equipment developments in World War I. The second part compares the development of French and German Army mechanization during the interwar period and describes how each country fared during the Battle of France in 1940. The film concludes by showing how the United States applied combined arms operations in the European Theater in World War II.
==
-—> Combined Arms Breach, 1990 <——
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZ-sCT_maAQ
What UA will have to master to smash Orc Lines. This visualization was developed for the Maneuver Center of Excellence and is closely based upon the National Training Center Breach and Assault exercise executed circa 1990. This visualization demonstrates viable Techniques, and Procedures as discussed in Army Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures March 3, 1990 for the conduct of the combined arms breach against a hypothetical enemy.
==
-—> How Many of Each Type of Tank Does Russia Have In Storage? <——
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PHUK6zkbpc
Type Good 2023
T-54/55 270
T-62 560
T-64 248
T-72 1841
T-80 942
T-90 50
~3,911 operational tanks in storage as of ~04/07/2023 | Ball park tank number.
==
-—> Contrast & Compare: the T-14 Armada [The AliExpress Tank]: The Best Russian Tank Ever! [very funny] <——
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-opSlCGLGQ4
[ Fear, Disarray, Desertion | They Couldn’t Handle It Anymore | Russian Dress as Civilians to Run Away From The Front ]
••Day 438: May 07
Ukrainians continued destroying Russian fuel store facilities along all main supply lines leading to southern Ukraine. The goal of this campaign is to create massive shortages of critical resources, which will undermine the Russian ability to use the accumulated tanks and other heavy equipment to stop the Ukrainian counteroffensive.
Over the last 4 days, Ukrainians conducted a lot of drone strikes, and some of them were very successful.
First of all, Ukrainians successfully hit the Ilskiy Oil Refinery for the second time. Russian sources reported that Ukrainians used at least 4 drones, and 1 of them reached the target and caused a fire by exploding on top of the reservoir. The fire rapidly grew, and the square area reached up to 400 square meters, but this time the firefighters also managed to prevent the fire from spreading.
So far, Ukrainians destroyed only 2 reservoirs, and as we can see, there are still a lot of targets in this region, which suggests that this is not the last attack on this refinery.
Another fire also broke out in the Krasnodar region. The cause of the fire still remains unspecified, but the object is an oil storage facility. The square area of fire grew even bigger than on the oil refinery and reached up to 500 square meters.
This is the fourth oil-related facility that has been damaged or destroyed over the last week, and all of them are located on the southern supply line, which means that in could be used for the Black Sea Fleet or Russian equipment in Zaporizhia.
Today, Ukrainians conducted another strike on the oil depot in Sevastopol. As you remember, this was the first target, and even though half of the refinery was destroyed, the freshest satellite footage indicates that there are still 12 reservoirs left that look like they could potentially be used. But the strike on Sevastopol was just a part of a much biggest strike on Crimea.
The first group of drones reportedly targeted Krasnoperekopsk. This is one of the two most important logistical hubs in northern Crimea because all supplies that are being delivered to the Kherson region always pass through this small town.
Today explosions were also recorded in Dzhankoi, which is located on the same supply line. And Russian Head of Crimea also claimed that Ukrainians accompanied the drone strike with the launch of 2 ballistic missiles, Hrim-2, which were reportedly shot down above the settlements north of Feodosia, which are also located on the same supply line.
The second group of drones traditionally targeted the area around Evpatoria. The goal of these strikes is twofold. First of all, Ukrainians are trying to prevent Russians from returning their aviation to the airfield in Novodefedorivka. And secondly, most of the Russian air defense is concentrated along the western shore, so continuous strikes are necessary for collecting intelligence about the Russian air defense.
The third group of drones targeted Sevastopol and Hvardiyske. It was reported that at the moment of the explosion, the airfield had 10 fighter jets, 8 bombers, 6 air defense systems, and a lot of ammunition and fuel, so it was a perfect target.
Speaking about the airfields, several days ago, Ukrainians also conducted a successful drone attack on the airfield in Bryansk. As a result, Ukrainians completely destroyed 1 plane AN-124 and damaged the fuselage of another AN-124 plane.
In the meantime, the panic around the Ukrainian counteroffensive in the Zaporizhia region reaches new heights. The Russian Head of the region claimed that they are expecting Ukrainians to launch a large-scale attack any day now because weather conditions have improved and the ground has dried out. That is why Russians have launched the second stage of massive evacuation.
If previously, they evacuated people from settlements between Vasylivka and Tokmak, then now the evacuation was launched from all settlements between Enerhodar and Polohy, clearly indicating a much greater scale of the expected battle.
The massive evacuation brought disarray to the region, and some civilians reported finding thrown away military uniforms, claiming that soldiers were changing clothes and trying to take advantage of the disarray and desert by escaping together with the civilians because they did not want to be on the zero line when the counteroffensive is launche
••Bakhmut & Prigozhin:
Some advances by Russians. Bakhmut holds. Prigozhin filmed a mother video yesterday confirming his intentions to withdraw the PMC. But Kaderov who previously supported Prigozhin in many ways, now says he needs to stay and fight with his troops and with the resources they have. [ AKA: Suck it up and quit whining. ] This change, in one day, means Kadyrov had a talk with Putin, and Prigozhin got some sort of warning sign from Putin.
Now, today, Prigozhin says he will not leave the position. And they have solved the ammo problem ... again. This affairs seems to show that Prigozhin is puppet who can be manipulated by Kadyrov and that Kadyrov now ranks above Prigozhin. Above Kadyrov is Gerasimov and Shoigu.
In his rebuke of Prigozhin, Kadyrov wears a Louis Vuitton jacket costing $3,800. That amount is equal to the salary of 8 Russian soldiers and shows the disdain their higher ups hold them in.
==
Avdiivka:
Russians set 400 mobnicks to attack. Attack totally demolished - confirmed by both UA troops and by Russians.
==
Rain again all around Ukraine.
==
Russia fired missiles at Odessa and drones were seen north of Kiev. The Russians claim that the big fire in Odessa is from a big ammo dump, although images don’t look like an ammo fire.
==
Because of the huge mobilization, the emigration, generally declining birth rates, and so on, Russian revenue will fall as its workforce shrinks, until there is no other path than to break the county apart into separate entities.
==
Czech President, Petr Pavel warns not to rush the counter offensive because the Ukrainians do not have the element of surprise like they did last year. They need to have the smallest detail worked out before launching.
==
Big interview with Karilla Budanov, Chief of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine Who said Putin is sick with cancer. This is the first time an official has remarked about Putin’s condition.
==
MoD Ukraine said there is a huge hype about the UA counterattack and people overestimate the outcome. He said if the UA gets10km of ground back, it would be a success. This is another way to say, ‘we need more weapons’.
“Rampant corruption is reported to have rendered Russia’s ballistic missile early warning system virtually useless. Scams by contractors are said to have led to unsuitable foreign-made components being used on a wide scale.”
https://twitter.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1655449330021433347
The Ukrainian military has revealed that a large portion of the Russian occupation administration staff was evacuated from the city of Skadovsk on the night between May 6-7 together with their families.
The Ukrainian counterattack is coming.
BAKHMUT AXIS /1320 UTC 8 MAY/ Facing an impending 9 May ‘deadline’ to capture the city of Bakhmut, RU forces have pressed failed attacks N and S of the urban area. Russian VDV and Motor Rifle troops carried out attacks against the H-32 HWY S & W of Ivanivske.
Everybody panic (if you are in Moscow)!
“Marks for missiles or UAVs allegedly appeared on the streets of Moscow 😂”
https://twitter.com/Maks_NAFO_FELLA/status/1655632432291299330
@NOELreports 1h
“The EU proposes to ban access to its ports for ships trying to circumvent sanctions against Russian oil, writes Bloomberg.” (Targeting oil transfers at sea)
(Also proposed for the first time, are sanctions on Chinese companies that aid Russia.)
@NOELreports 7h
The head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, will pay a visit to Kyiv tomorrow. She will reaffirm the unwavering support of Ukraine from the EU.
@EuromaidanPress 2h
The Hague’s Permanent Court of Arbitration has ordered Russia to cough up (5) billions to Ukraine’s energy giant (Naftogaz) in compensation for the losses from the (2014) annexation of Crimea. Will Russia actually pay?
At the start of the “Special Military Operation” more than a year ago, the Ukrainian Army outnumbered the Russians by a factor of three. Even with their advantage in numbers, the Ukrainian defenses failed to stop the numerically inferior Russian force and failed to expel the Russians from the Luhansk and Donetsk territories.
We now are being enticed to believe that Ukraine, with a numerically inferior force compared to Russia’s current troop deployment, is going to mount an offensive, despite a severe lack of tanks, armored vehicles, mobile artillery and air cover, that will drive the Russians from fortifications erected during the last six months.
Ukrainian officials persist in making wild claims about Russian defeats, low morale and catastrophic casualties. There is a very simple test you can do to evaluate the Ukrainian claim about Russia’s losses — find the social media and count the photos and videos. If Russia had suffered the number of killed and wounded cited by Ukrainian and Western officials and pundits, then it would be impossible to hide those photos and videos. Social media and smart phones are ubiquitous and grieving wives, girl friends, parents and friends are not easy to corral.
Images and videos like the following are widely available on Ukrainian Telegram channels. The opposite is true when it comes to finding comparable material on Russian channels. There are a few photos of newly dug graves in a Russian military cemetery, but nothing like the quantity of images recording Ukraine losses.
Ukraine says it downed Russian cruise missiles aimed at Kyiv
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-65529511
Ukrainian officials say air defences downed 15 Russian cruise missiles which were launched overnight against the capital, Kyiv.
No casualties were reported from the attack, according to Serhiy Popko, a senior Kyiv military official.
He said he believed the missiles had been launched from four bombers flying from the Caspian sea region.
According to Ukraine, Russia launched its biggest drone attack of the war yet on Sunday night.
That wave of drone and missile strikes killed at least one person and injured five.
