Russia opens artillery barrages in south and east Ukraine

The Guardian ^ | May 5, 2022 | Peter Beaumont

[AmericaFirst101]

Russia has unleashed heavy artillery barrages against multiple Ukrainian positions in the south and east of the country, amid conflicting claims over whether Russian forces were attempting to storm the last Ukrainian positions in the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol.

(snip)

While it is difficult to assess accurate casualty numbers, senior western officials who have briefed journalists recently suggested that Russian losses may have declined somewhat since the heavy casualties incurred during the failed campaign to take Kyiv.

There are also suggestions that Ukrainian losses may be mounting under intense Russian artillery bombardments that have marked Moscow’s conduct of the latest phase of the war.

(snip)

Despite claims of Ukrainian counteroffensives in the east, these appear to have been limited in scope, with an adviser to Zelenskiy having said that Ukraine was unlikely to launch a significant counteroffensive before mid-June, when it hopes to have received more weapons from its allies.

[AmericaFirst101]

The Ukrainian forces are getting pounded with artillery right now as Russia pulls back its ground assault to preserve its manpower (suffer less casualties) and instead has seemingly just decided to lob artillery at the opposing side.

As stated in the article, Russian losses appear to be down and Ukrainian losses up. And Ukraine appears to be waiting for more western firepower before it mounts any kind of serious counteroffensive (although they did have one in the Kharkiv province today).

Waiting for more weapons is good, but having your frontline forces get munitions rained down on them day after day may not be the most sound battlefield strategy.

[NorseViking]

What Western weapons, what counter-offensives?:)
Do you mean 90 howitzers in the theater where thousands of tubes are present? Or when the Russians a trading a village to lure them in and pulverize in process?

[AmericaFirst101]

I would not want to be a Ukrainian fighter in the Donbass right now, that’s for sure. Here’s more:

https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2022/0504/Russian-war-s-Phase-2-How-Ukraine-troops-adapt-giving-little-ground

<<<<<<
“Their artillery never, never stops,” says the deputy commander of Ukraine’s Donbas Battalion, a major who only gave the nickname Kot (Cat). He spoke in Sloviansk with a balaclava covering his face, as an air raid siren wailed across the city.

(snip)

“We really have a lack of heavy artillery,” says Ukrainian Sgt. Viktor Davydov, still wired and speaking quickly of Ukraine’s needs, after returning to the town of Druzhkivka from the front, where he says Russian artillery strikes continue “24/7.”

“When Russia sends incoming 200 shells, we send back 10 shells,” says Sergeant Davydov, who wears sunglasses, a pistol on his thigh, and a skull shoulder patch in the blue and yellow colors of the Ukrainian flag.
<<<<<<<

Ukraine is flat-out outgunned right now, and their front units are taking a beating because of that. Not sure how many losses they can absorb. I guess we’ll find out.

[NorseViking]

According to the Ukrainian internal bulletin, not for public consumption their casualties are 50-55,000. Look at their POWs of late. They are guys in their 40-50s without any training.

[AmericaFirst101]

Yeah. They are dipping into their manpower reserves pretty heavily, it seems. That’s not a good sign.

Even if you get those guys great weapons, they don’t know how to fight. And the non-volunteers often give up easier.

I also have heard that the Ukraine military utilizes a lot of mercenaries. Probably better than the older reserve troops, but they have no loyalty but to the dollar.

[Greetings_Puny_Humans]

Do you mean 90 howitzers in the theater where thousands of tubes are present?

Hello my dear Russian friend, American Howitzers greatly outrange your shitty tubes from WW2, and Russians are dropping shells all across the line, at civilians, and at the middle of nowhere, instead of concentrating their fire to make use of that advantage. Russians have been heavily shelling the frontline for 3 weeks now and are still unable to make any significant gains.

In addition, Ukrainians have an evolutionary advantage over you and your orc and goblin army. Russians have been destroyed by generations of communism, making them stupid, servile, and lacking in initiative. In Russia itself, outside of Moscow they live in their own filth, with many places lacking even basic things like toilets. They are thus incapable of winning a fight against modern humans or sustaining civilization:

This all adds up to two things: (1) it sucks to be you, (2) Russia will lose to Ukraine.

Or when the Russians a trading a village to lure them in and pulverize in process?

You mean when Ukrainians trade them a small village in exchange for pulverizing them? You are literally attempting to steal Ukraine's strategy and claim it for yourself! Luckily, the Orcs and Goblins on the ground are more honest than you:

From radio interceptions of Russkies around Izyum:

Original Source:

https://twitter.com/ServiceSsu/status/1521115758083854338

https://twitter.com/ServiceSsu/status/1521139858399502336

Russkie propagandist/Journalist lamenting over military results in Donbass:

Source: https://twitter.com/mdmitri91/status/1520403705320849418/photo/1

From Igor Girkin-Strelkov, former Minister of Defense for the Donbass on fighting in Izyum. He even mentions the expected Ukrainian counteroffensive in summer:

https://twitter.com/mdmitri91/status/1519629074049732608/photo/2

[NorseViking]

And your data is based on what? There are indeed American 155mm rounds capable to outrange the average Russian 152-mm Msta-B. The problem is that they cost $85,000 per shot and Ukraine won’t get any. And Russia has similar rounds in the field and using them to great effect.

[AmericaFirst101]

“This all adds up to two things: (1) it sucks to be you, (2) Russia will lose to Ukraine.”

Good luck on #2.

In order to achieve such a result, things need to change dramatically from where they are now. Maybe they will, maybe they won’t. Maybe a long-term insurgency can get the job done.

https://www.digitaljournal.com/world/ukraine-seeks-to-stall-relentless-russian-onslaught-in-donbas/article

<<<<<<<<<<
Pessimism about the chances of pushing back the Russians appears to be spreading.

(snip)

With the battle now shifted to the rolling plains and industrial cities of the Donbas, the confrontation is largely down to artillery — what Soviet leader Stalin called “the god of war”

But the balance of power remains hugely disproportionate, with Russia up to “five times stronger in terms of equipment”, says Iryna Terehovych, a 40-year-old sergeant in the 123rd Ukrainian brigade.

(snip)

“Viking”, a 27-year-old staff sergeant who fought in Kreminna said his comrades are exhausted and waiting for the order to pull back.

“If it was a war between infantry forces, we would have a chance. But in this area, it’s first and foremost an artillery war and we don’t have enough artillery,” he says.

“For every 300 shells they fire, we fire three.”
<<<<<<<<<<

That doesn’t sound like the winning team there.

Things can change, but right now I would not want to be the Ukrainians in this fight.

Russia, not wanting to fight man-to-man at the moment, is just shelling the Ukrainians to dust. And then Russia will advance.

That’s a real strategy. We’ll see if the Ukrainians can counter it.

[Greetings_Puny_Humans]

There are indeed American 155mm rounds capable to outrange the average Russian 152-mm Msta-B

The USA is sending or has sent 40,000 155mm rounds:

https://www.19fortyfive.com/2022/04/ukraine-will-give-russia-problems-thanks-to-u-s-155mm-howitzers/

Furthermore, the systems they are being sent not only outrange most Russkie artillery, they are far more accurate than Russkie artillery, with deviations of only a few meters. Most Russian artillery doesn't even hit its target!

[Greetings_Puny_Humans]

In order to achieve such a result,

Let's read your own article:

"Apart from the hard-fought takeover of most of the southern port city of Mariupol on the shores of the Sea of Azov, the frontline that emerged from the 2014 war has not moved in the southern Donbas.

“In the Lugansk region, the objectives announced by Moscow are close to being achieved but in Donetsk, the advance is proving more difficult,” said Khramchikhin.

For now, Russian forces are gradually moving down towards Kramatorsk, capital of Ukrainian-controlled Donbas and a key target for Moscow, while also moving up towards Pokrovsk, on the region’s western flank.

In the past two weeks, they have gained a foothold in several small towns where urban combat is raging, such as Rubizhne, which had 57,000 residents before the war.

But no place of importance has been taken since the capture of Kreminna on April 18, a town of 18,000 people before the war, 50 kilometres (30 miles) northeast of Kramatorsk.

Read more: https://www.digitaljournal.com/world/ukraine-seeks-to-stall-relentless-russian-onslaught-in-donbas/article#ixzz7SaMJkJUy

Note Russkies are not making any progress and still haven't even gotten to Kramatorsk. They have been pummeling Ukraine's forces with artillery for the past 3 weeks now and still have failed to get there. But what happens when they do?

Kramatorsk is a fortress akin to Mariupol, which the Russkies still haven't taken despite massive and constant bombing. The Russians do NOT have the forces to do anything to it. They will just bomb the shit out of it, demolishing every building there is, but will not drive out Ukrainian forces from there.

The AFP, which also had that reporter shouting and demanding that we prove Russia was about to invade Ukraine, manages to quote random people to make pretend that the Ukrainians are "pessimistic," despite overwhelming high morale on the Ukrainian side.

Read your own Minister of Defense's expectation: by summer Ukraine will have massed its reserves, armed with new western weapons, huge numbers of tanks and armor captured from Russia and gifted from foreign countries, with completely fresh troops.

Meanwhile, Russia is reduced to sending Russian soldiers armed with guns from WW2 just to get grinded up into meat taking less than a mile of land.

[NorseViking]

No, the average 155mm round with the M777 howitzer is outranged by the Russian gun in similar caliber by about 17%.

And no indirect fire weapon hits within “few meters” except with precision munition.

Russia has them, Ukraine doesn’t. 40,000 rounds are nothing for this sort of conflict on top of that.

[AmericaFirst101]

I don’t think you understand the strategy properly.

Russia is not trying to advance very much. What they’re trying to do is hold the Ukrainian forces in place and shell them into oblivion.

That’s what is happening, according to the soldiers in both of my last two cited articles.

“When Russia sends incoming 200 shells, we send back 10 shells,”

“For every 300 shells they fire, we fire three.”

You bomb then into dust, and then you advance.

That’s the strategy. No real advancements until the enemy is pulverized. Then you suffer minimal casualties when you advance.

I don’t know what “orcs” or “goblins” you’re talking about, but they’re pounding the heck out of the Ukrainian forces at the moment.

That’s not good if you’re rooting for Ukraine.

Ukraine could win, I guess. But that’s not where things look to be heading right now. They need a dramatic increase in weaponry and they’re going to need new troops to utilize it to replace the ones being lost to the lopsided shelling.

[jacknhoo]

“ (2) Russia will lose to Ukraine.”

________

Absolutely ridiculous.

[Does so]

‘Sounds like the Russians are creating their own [WW2] Monte Cassino...

https://www.thoughtco.com/battle-of-monte-cassino-2360450

[Greetings_Puny_Humans]

And no indirect fire weapon hits within “few meters” except with precision munition.

Ukraine is receiving an undisclosed number of 155mm Excalibur shells. Not only is their range awesome and superior to Russian weapons, they are GUIDED shells:

"The M982 Excalibur is a 155-mm extended range guided artillery shell. The Excalibur was developed and manufactured by Raytheon Missiles & Defense and BAE Systems AB.

"Excalibur is guided through the GPS and can hit targets up to 60 km away. And in December 2020, during the tests, the US Army successfully hit the target at a distance of 70 km. The weight is 44 kg, and the weight of the warhead is 22 kg. "Experience from Iraq has demonstrated the high accuracy and effectiveness of these weapons – 92% of hits were with an error of less than 4 meters."

https://mil.in.ua/en/news/ukraine-will-receive-excalibur-precision-guided-extended-range-artillery-shells-for-155-mm-howitzers-from-canada/

And this is just one of the types of shells Ukraine is receiving, with Ukraine possibly receiving even more advanced shells than these from Canada, the US and other countries.

I have already seen a picture of destroyed Russian artillery with artillery damage concentrated both on the artillery and closely around it, unlike the moonscapes that are ordinarily caused by Russian and Ukrainian standard artillery.

These, combined with Ukraine's 1,600+ other artillery systems they possessed before the war, as well as the undisclosed numbers they are receiving from other countries, absolutely gives Ukraine an edge.

Russia might have thousands of tubes, but it doesn't do them any good since they refuse to actually engage in proper tactics, concentrate their fire, and their troops piss themselves and run for their lives at the slightest opposition!

[AmericaFirst101]

More on the current (Phase 2) Russia strategy in Ukraine:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-61284964

“On many front lines, the overwhelming majority of injuries involve shrapnel and concussion - evidence of the Russian strategy of simply bombarding Ukraine’s heavily-fortified positions from a distance.”

Russia is not trying to advance on the battlefield. They are content to sit back and fire away with their artillery advantage.

Once things get cleared out a bit, then expect a ground advance with troops.

Doing this minimizes troop losses. If your opponent has less artillery than you do, then you fight them via artillery at a distance.

[Greetings_Puny_Humans]

Absolutely ridiculous.

Putinist, this is what you guys said when we assured you that Russia would fail to take Kyiv.

Not even your own people on the ground believe your BS about the inevitability of Russian victory!

[Greetings_Puny_Humans]

Russia is not trying to advance very much.

Except they DO, because Russians can't pulverize Ukrainian bunkers and other defenses no matter how much artillery they throw at them. They shoot their shells and then advance, almost daily.

The result is Russians on the ground complaining on their radios that they once had 800 men but are now reduced to 50 after vain attempts to advance into places like Izyum, or complaining they once had tons of tanks and now must sabotage the one tank they have left in order to avoid going into the meat grinder.

The images of the devastation to Russian forces prove the lie you are peddling here.

[NorseViking]

Is undisclosed number 10 shells? Do you understand the requirements for competent use of such munitions?

Russia has both similar rounds and ability to use them, and is actually using them right now.

[NorseViking]

You are raving, Puny, as usual. The main consequence of sending these weapons is that they are going to kill Americans in large numbers already in this decade.
I know that you don’t care because you aren’t Americans.